


Skinless

by Shivvlan



Series: Deep Within [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Adventure, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-23
Updated: 2011-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-15 00:36:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shivvlan/pseuds/Shivvlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's said that beauty is only skin deep, and that to truly know a person you have to look beneath the flesh to the soul within the casing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Skinless Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Naruto is something I do not own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: All the Naruto-tachi are 16. Also, this is _extremely_ AU. This fik was written for the idea, not to fit into the Naruto world.

Warnings: Refer to previous chapter

Prologue:

The mission had been long, boring and, as far as Sasuke was concerned, completely pointless.

The mission, to deliver a message scroll to the headman of a village two days walk from Konoha village, had probably been given to team seven because they were the only ones that, for a change, didn't have anything more important to do. Sasuke was convinced that the 'vital document' was probably nothing more than a letter that no one else had been free to deliver. Truly, if this had been the A-Class mission the Fifth had hyped it up to be; then, at least, there would have been a small amount of trouble with it. But there hadn't been. There hadn't been a single ambush; no cleaver ploy's to steal it, not even someone walking up to them and demanding they hand it over. Everything, from the moment they had left Konoha, had run smooth, simple and ultimately was a waste of time. Time that would have been better spent training.

"Mmm…I'm hungry. Can we stop yet?"

The annoying voice came from a few meters ahead, issuing from the obstinate mouth of one Uzumaki Naruto.

"Oi, Sasuke! I thought you said we'd get to the village today!" Naruto had stopped walking and was pointing an accusing finger in Sasuke's direction. Immediately Sakura stepped in front and glared at their blonde companion.

"Stop bothering Sasuke-kun, Naruto! We would have been back by now, if you hadn't have kept making us stop!"

"Awww…Sakura-chaaan."

/Smack!/ Sakura's fist connected with the side of Naruto's head, "Be quiet, Naruto and stop whining."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched slightly as he watched the familiar scene play out before him. Annoying!

"If we camp now we won't get back to the village until just after lunchtime tomorrow," Sasuke said, glowering at the two and hoping they'd get the message to settle down, "We can be back by midnight if we keep going."

"Midnight?" Naruto exclaimed and crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm hungry and tired. I'm not walking till midnight!"

"You'll walk if Sasuke-kun says we walk!" Sakura countered.

"Why? Who died and made him Emperor of the world!"

"Just do it, Naruto!"

Sasuke closed his eyes, he didn't really care which option they chose, he just wished that for once the two other members of his team would shut up.

"…Not going to do what he says!"

"Naruto!"  
"I refuse!"

"Sasuke-kuuuun!" Sakura about-faced to where Sasuke was now leaning against a nearby tree in determination, then her expression turned to one of fright.

"Sasuke! Behind you!"

Immediately, Sasuke launched himself away from the tree, his eyes snapping back open coloured blood red as he instinctively used his Sharingan and, even as he dimly registered that the shout that had saved him hadn't come from Sakura, he ducked out of the way of the sword that had almost beheaded him in his distraction.

Spinning on his heel, Sasuke glared at the slim sword embedded in the tree. Standing next to the tree, one hand still on the hilt on his weapon and a smirk on his face was a short, slim man dressed in plain, uninteresting clothes.

With a further smirk, the man tensed his arm muscles and with a heave, pulled the blade from the tree's sap sticky wood.

Sasuke didn't even lift an eyebrow. Did the man seek to scare him with a show of strength? The idea was laughable. Sasuke may have appeared to be a kid, barely 16-years old, but he had seen and fought men, and demons, that could do much worse then remove a simple sword from a tree trunk.

Behind him, Sasuke heard a startled exclamation from Sakura and the clash of Kunai.

Turning his head slightly, he tried to get an idea of how many more ambusher's had attacked them but his own attacker leapt forward, forcing Sasuke to dodge the blade that, once again, came flying at his head.

"Your fight is with me, brat!" The words were spat at him; "You and your little friends have caused us a lot of trouble, you know."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and smirked, "We cause a lot of people trouble, care to specify?"

The man yelled at him wordlessly and made another attempt to slice Sasuke, which the boy dodged easily.

"That damned document." The man growled; his eyes narrowing as he stared at Sasuke's easy stance.

"The one we just delivered safely." The boy prompted.

The man gave another wordless growl before answering, "We were supposed to intercept it."

"Bit late for that." Sasuke anticipated the swing of the sword that came at him this time and, bringing a Kunai up to deflect it out wide, he rearranged their positions so that he could finally see his two companions.

The two had been driven apart further up the road. Naruto was fine; already he had one of the two men that had attacked him on the ground, unconscious, and he was finishing off the second as Sasuke watched. He hadn't even had to resort to his Kage buushin no jutsu.

Sakura, on the other hand, was slowly being beaten back by her opponent. Step-by-step she was being cornered against one of the larger trees on the roadside.

Casting a quick glance back at Naruto revealed that the loudmouth had successfully disposed of his second opponent, so Sasuke turned back to his own fight; Naruto could deal with Sakura.

Narrowing his eyes, Sasuke studied the man's stance and then tensed to move. The man had been keeping a safe distance between them, only coming in close when he intended to use his sword and then moving back out of Sasuke's reach. He probably didn't have much experience in pure hand-to-hand combat, so Sasuke had the advantage if it came to that.

The boy resisted the urge to smirk; he hadn't even really needed his Sharingan to fight this guy.

The man's next swing was quick in coming. Stepping forward he tried, foolishly, to best Sasuke in speed and only succeeded in getting a Kunai through his hand. With a startled cry, the man dropped his weapon and snatched his hand back, off of the Kunai. Sasuke didn't stop. Taking out his frustration from earlier, he crouched low and put his hands against the ground for balance and then planted his foot firmly in the swordsman's jaw, sending him flying backwards to slam into a tree and crumple to the ground unconscious.

And Sakura screamed.

Over the years since he had been placed on team seven, Sasuke had gotten somewhat familiar with the types of screams that issued from his female team-mate and this one had him immediately spinning on his heel, eyes frantically searching out the reason for the sound.

He didn't even stop to think as he registered the scene before him. Sprinting as fast as he could go, Sasuke made it too his team-mates in mere seconds and bringing up the Kunai he still held in his hand, he plunged it into the final mans back, quickly seeking out his heart with the tip.

Not even a minute after Sakura had screamed the fight was over and the last man crumpled to the ground; dead.

And Naruto crumpled with him.


	2. Skinless Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I hereby declare this chapter disclaimed.

Warnings: Refer to previous chapter

Chapter 01

Naruto was laying still, his skin pale against the stark white sheets around him and it was only the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed that proved he wasn't dead as he lay in his hospital bed.

The coma that he had inexplicably fallen into two weeks before hand had everyone, even the Hokage, completely stumped. Sasuke had carried Naruto back to the village, he and Sakura travelling at top speeds to get there and arriving barely an hour after dusk, and had taken him straight to the woman that governed the Konoha village. From there she had proceeded to have absolutely no idea what was wrong with him, other than a hazarded guess that his spirit or consciousness had been somehow sealed within him; the problem was that she couldn't find the seal, and that there were no traces of whatever Jutsu the dead man had used on Naruto for her to follow. After a week of focusing almost her complete attention on the unconscious boy, the Hokage had finally declared that, unless they could find out something about the Jutsu that had been used, they would have to simply wait to see if Naruto would wake up on his own.

After that, team seven had been put on temporary stand down, and Sasuke had all but disappeared. For the first week, Sakura had visited the hospital every two days. For the second week she had come every three days. Now she had arrived because Kakashi-sensei had 'suggested' she put down her studies and come in with he and Shikamaru.

Pushing open the half open door, Kakashi, Sakura, then a bored looking Shikamaru stepped into the small room, blinking as the light brightened slightly in contrast to the dimmer hallway.

The only sounds in the room were the faint 'beep' of the heart monitor that kept track of Naruto's heart rate, and the light, occasional rustle of paper.

The source of the rustling paper was the first thing that Kakashi focused on as he entered the room, and his eyes narrowed.

"Iruka…" He said the name softly, so as to not startle the man who looked far too engrossed in his schoolwork to have noticed their arrival. Iruka didn't even twitch, simply carried on marking the sheets before him. After a moment though, he spoke.

"There's been no change; good or bad. He hasn't even twitched. The Hokage was here earlier to check on…him."

Kakashi didn't miss the slight hesitance before the last word and he flinched inwardly. What the other man was really saying was that the Hokage had been here checking on the _Kyuubi_ , not on Naruto. With the boy's consciousness no longer in control of his body it was a very real possibility that the Nine-tails would take the opportunity to work away at the undefended seal and attempt to possess the body. The Hokage had no choice but to show up every few days and check on it.

"Just because there's been no change, doesn't mean we can't come visit." He responded lightly and gestured at Sakura who had been hanging back slightly, staring at Iruka's back with concern.

Hesitating, not really wanting to break into Iruka's concentration, the girl stepped forward and moved around the bed to replace the almost dead flower she had last brought into the hospital with the new one she had brought today. An Iris, for sorrow, hope and as a guide for his soul, wherever it was.

Iruka's pen stopped for a moment and he smiled up at the girl, for a moment the lines of worry and sleeplessness disappearing from his face.

"Thank you." He said softly then looked back down, seeming to retreat back into his own silent world of schoolwork.

There was silence then, filled in only by the continued beep of the heart monitor, the shuffling of Iruka's papers and the new uncomfortable sounds of fidgeting from Sakura's direction.

"You don't have to stay." Iruka said after a few minutes, his pen pausing in its work. "Thank you for visiting."

Sakura and Shikamaru both looked at Kakashi and he nodded slightly. Almost as if the floor was greased, Sakura slipped out the doorway and Shikamaru followed at a slower pace, looking back at Naruto for a moment before stepping out the door.

Turning, Kakashi moved to close the door and froze as Sakura's fading voice floated back into the room.

"…It's like a tomb in there, how can Iruka-sensei stand i…"

"Stupid…" Kakashi muttered under his breath and shut the door quietly, the soft click almost echoing off the sudden tenseness charging the air.

Iruka's back was stiff, his pen held in a white knuckled grip when Kakashi turned back and he decided it would be better to wait, then to try and offer any kind of speech.

"He's…he's _going_ to wake up." Iruka said firmly, after a while, the tenseness in his muscles the only thing belying the words. "He's not the kind to give up over something as small as this, he'll be fighting with everything he has to wake up."

"Of course he is." Kakashi murmured, and moved forward a little and rested his hand lightly on Iruka's shoulder, "He's strong; he won't die so easily."

Iruka's grip on his pen loosened a little and he bowed his head slightly. "I just wish we knew what was wrong with him so we could do something."

"The Hokage is still searching for any information on what kind of Jutsu was used on him. If anyone can find it, she can…"

Iruka nodded slightly.

"When did you sleep last?" Kakashi asked suddenly, "Or eat?"

Iruka blushed at the suddenly changed topic, "I…I slept some last night, and I…uhmm… I'm sure I ate something this morning."

"Not good enough. Come downstairs and I'll buy you something to eat, then you can go home and get some sleep."

"No, I can't. What…what if Naruto wakes up and I'm not here? And it's getting late; I have to stay with him for the night so he's not alone. I…"

Kakashi tightened his grip on Iruka's shoulder; "You're not going to be any use to him if you fall down from exhaustion. He'll understand if he wakes up, so just do as I say. A nights sleep and a meal will do you good."

"But…"

"No 'buts'. Get your things."

Iruka held out his resistance for a few moments more, then relented; his own common sense told him that what Kakashi was saying was right. A few moments later he'd gathered up his things and let Kakashi lead him out of the room and downstairs to the hospital cafeteria.

Behind them the door swung itself half shut and five minutes later a nurse on her rounds poked her nose around the door and, seeing the room empty of awake occupants, switched the light off leaving the room lit by nothing more than the light of the dieing sun.

The room stayed silent for a long while after that. Outside the sun set, staining the sky with deep reds and purples before disappearing completely and leaving the half moon to cast its soft glow into the quiet room. After a while an automatic heater clicked on, keeping the room at a comfortable temperature for it's oblivious occupant, and after an even shorter while, it clicked off again.

It wasn't until the moon was finally getting into a comfortable position high in the sky that there was any movement in the room.

Slowly a window inched itself open and a small flutter of breeze sent the thin curtains that covered it to moving, and then a shadow slipped into the room and the window clicked shut again.

The shadow hovered for a moment near the window before moving across the room to check the door and then, finding it closed to satisfaction, the shadow moved over to the bed and looked down at the figure lying there.

The beep of the heart monitor seemed incredibly loud in the still room and the shadow glared at it in irritation for a moment before sighing and dropping down into the chair close beside the bed that Iruka had vacated earlier.

Everything went quiet again as the shadow sat there; blending into the shadows around the chair and watching the slow rise and fall of Naruto's chest as he breathed.

The shadow suddenly let out a breath and let their head drop down on their arms that were crossed in front of them on the bed.

"Sorry," Sasuke said, his voice muffled by the bed, "that I didn't come till now." He paused for a moment, "I was…trying to remember the Jutsu that man used. I was using my Sharingan; I should be able to remember the Justu… But I didn't see enough of it, any of it really. Not enough to do anything… Damnit! I shouldn't have killed him, I should have just knocked him out or…or _something_!"

He thumped his hand down on the bed in anger, "Those guys were small fry! We should have been able to take them out without a scratch. If I hadn't have taken so long getting some information out of the one that attacked me I could have been there faster. Damnit!"

"Oh sure. Like having mister _hotshot_ there would have helped any."

Sasuke jerked his head up in shock, staring at where Naruto lay, with his eyes wide.

"N…Naruto?"

The body didn't so much as twitch…but a voice, one suspiciously like Naruto's, continued.

"Sakura must have told you what happened, that guy was ready to suicide so long as he took one of us with him. I have no idea what he did to me, but it sure as hell hurt and all he did was grab my arms."

Sasuke's eyes were still wide, but he'd managed to figure out that the voice was coming from behind him and he slowly turned around, his eyes searching the darkness near the doorway for _anybody_ that could possibly be talking.

"…And you shouldn't beat yourself up over it." The words were begrudgingly said, "Not even that old hag Hokage knows about this Jutsu so it'd probably just be you laying there instead of me if you'd gotten to us faster. …And if you hadn't have killed him, I'd probably be dead right now." Silence again from the voice and Sasuke activated his Sharingan trying to find any kinds of hidden Jutsu that might be in the room. Immediately Sasuke spotted a distortion in the air near the doorway and he focused on it.

"But so you know, when I wake up I'm _so_ gonna kick your arse!"

Barely even registering he was doing it, Sasuke responded to the taunt he'd heard a million times. "As if you could, dobe. But you're welcome to try it if you don't mind being humiliated… _again_."

Sudden, dead silence filled only by the screaming beep of the heart monitor fell on the room, and then it was broken as the automatic heater clicked on again, adding a faint whirr to the background.

"S…Sasuke?"

Sasuke kept his eyes pinned to the distortion in the air and glared, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The distortion suddenly leapt forward and Sasuke stared as it suddenly took a faint shape that solidified by the second.

"You can see me? You can hear me?" The shape, now very obviously a see-through Naruto, was almost nose-to-nose with Sasuke, who had pushed himself out of the chair and had backed up against the bed. A quick glace revealed that yes, Naruto _was_ still laying on the bed, still very much in his coma and not moving a muscle.

"How come you can see me, and the others can't!" Sasuke moved his wide-eyed glance back to the see-through Naruto shape in front of him, "I've been talking to everyone that came to see me, I even tried poking a few of them and nothing happened! How come you can see me?"

"N…Naruto?"

The Naruto-shaped talker screwed up his face into a look of annoyance, "Of course it's me, jerk. Who else would I be? You're using the Sharingan, is that why you can see and hear me?"

It certainly sounded like Naruto.

"I could hear you without the Sharingan." Sasuke muttered and 'Naruto' moved back from him slightly, his legs going straight through the chair as he moved away.

"So you could only _see_ me when you used your Sharingan. Cool. So you can tell everyone I'm still here, right?" Naruto turned back to Sasuke, his expression earnest. "You can tell Iruka-sensei that I'm okay and that he can stop worrying so much. He's been here the entire time you know, since you brought me back, he's barely left, except for classes. I kept telling him to go away and sleep and stuff, but he couldn't hear me. You'll tell him, right?"

"Su…sure." Sasuke glance back down at the Naruto on the bed and then at the Naruto in front of him. "How come you're…there? Shouldn't you be…" he made a vague gesture at the body, "in there?"

Naruto made an annoyed face, "I _tried_ that! There's some sort of _thingy_ preventing me from going back. I can't even _touch_ my body, I'm just repelled."

"A seal?" That would explain a lot.

Naruto nodded, "So you'll tell that old hag Hokage that I'm here too, right? So she'll stop looking for me in there." He pointed over Sasuke's shoulder at his body.

At this point, Sasuke suddenly stood up straight. "No. This is impossible."

"What?"

"It's impossible!" Sasuke insisted to the flabbergasted looking Naruto. "I've barely slept these last two weeks and so I'm seeing things, in fact I've probably fallen asleep and just think I'm awake."

"Sasuke, you jerk!"

"I'm leaving!"

" _What_? You jerk! You can't leave! You have to tell everyone I'm still here!"

Naruto's angry shout fell on deaf ears as Sasuke firmly stopped using his Sharingan and all but hurled himself from Naruto's window and headed home. There was no way what he'd thought had just happened had happened. He needed to go home and get some sleep. And anyway, he'd managed to convince the Hokage earlier that day to take he and Sakura off of their temporary stand down, and they had a mission in the morning. After the mission he'd go back and see Naruto during daylight hours, when he'd had enough rest and until then whatever hallucination he'd just had would be ignored.

Firmly, using a tactic he'd perfected over many years, Sasuke put the incident out of his mind and by the time he got home he was quite ready to drop into an exhausted sleep, only pausing to set his alarm for the morning before he collapsed onto his bed, not even bothering to change.

End Chapter One 


	3. Skinless Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Disclaimed again.

Disclaimer: Disclaimed again.

Chapter Two

When Sasuke came to the next morning it was to new morning sunlight streaming through his window and directly into his eyes, and to the sound of his alarm beeping incessantly on the other side of the bed. Groaning, he threw his arm over his eyes and faced away from the annoying sound, trying to block it out so that he could go back to his blessed sleeping oblivion.

The sound didn't stop, however, and after a while Sasuke finally gave in and rolled over to turn it off.

…And came face-to-face with Naruto.

" _Aaahhhh_!" Sasuke fell back with a startled yell and tumbled over the side of the bed, landing on the floor with a bump. Naruto's, or rather a _see-through, fuzzy, Naruto-shaped_ , face appeared over the side of the bed and peered down at Sasuke, grinning wickedly.

"Good Morning! It's about time you woke up, your alarm's been going off forever!"

"N-N-N-N…"

"Naaaaruuutooo." Naruto said his name slowly, as if speaking to a child, "It's not a hard name to remember, you know." He tilted his head to the side, "Hey, you're looking at me without your Sharingan. You can _hear_ me, right? Too cool. Now get up and let's go see the old hag Hokage!"

Sasuke blinked, then rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands and then looked again. Then he closed his eyes, counted to ten and opened them again. He frowned.

Naruto was now lying full across the bed, his chin propped on his hand as he watched Sasuke curiously – and he wasn't disappearing.

"Am I still here?" Naruto's voice was amused and Sasuke glared at him.

"No, you're not. You're exactly what you were last night, a hallucination." And he got up.

"Really?" Naruto's voice was laced with heavy sarcasm as he sat up and watched Sasuke walk around his bed and head over to the dresser for a fresh change of clothes. "I don't _feel_ like a hallucination."

Sasuke ignored him, stomped out of his room and headed down the hall to the bathroom to wash up and get changed. The Naruto-shaped hallucination followed him, walking straight through the door that Sasuke slammed in his face.

"Oi, hurry up. We have to go see the old hag."

Sasuke continued to ignore him and filled the sink with water before splashing his face with it and looking into the mirror.

"Hey! Now's no time to be admiring yourself in the mirror, pretty-boy! Hurry up and change so we can go!"

Sasuke's expression changed to a scowl and he turned around and glared at Naruto, then back over his shoulder at the mirror.

"Oh _man_! Come _on_ , Sasuke! I understand that it could possibly take you as long as a girl to get ready in the morning but we have to go see the old hag _now_."

"Shut up!" Finally Sasuke dropped his silence and Naruto's hackles went up along with his hand, which he used to point at the other boy.

"No way! Do you _know_ how boring it was with nothing to do all night except watch you sleep! That's five-hours of my life that I'll _never get back_ so you _have_ to hurry up and pretty yourself up so we can go tell the old hag that _I'm still here_!"

Sasuke glared, "I didn't _ask_ you to follow me home!"

"I only did because _you_ were being a jerk! If you'd _believed_ me I wouldn't have had to follow you! Now come on!"

Sasuke turned away and began to change his clothes, "No. I can't go see the Hokage. I have a mission."

" _What_? Who cares! You have to go see the old hag!"

Sasuke finished fixing the tie on his pants, checked that his weapon pouch was secure on his belt and then pulled his t-shirt on. "No. If I went to her and told her I was seeing you following me around, she'd think I was nuts and put team seven on stand down again." Sasuke stated as he pulled the t-shirt straight and then walked straight through 'Naruto', opened the bathroom door and down the hall, "Now go away."

"Sasuke, you jerk! What about me!"

Sasuke paused and glared at the Naruto-shape coldly, noticing that he seemed to be fading in and out of visibility and making his eyes water. "If by 'you' you mean _Naruto_ , then he is at the hospital, and will remain at the hospital until the Hokage finds out how to fix him, or until he wakes up. _I_ am going on my mission, and _you_ are going to go away and stop making me hallucinate."

"Damnit, Sasuke! Get it through your head that it _is me!_ " Naruto yelled chasing after the other boy as he grabbed the travel pack from beside his front door then walked out, slamming it behind him. "I'm Naruto, you're _not_ hallucinating. _Sasuke!_ "

"I said _shut up_!" Sasuke snapped and preceded to start ignoring 'Naruto' again as he moved quickly down the street. He'd overslept but he'd made up the time by not stopping to eat and he managed to make it to the assigned meeting spot at the same time as Kakashi-sensei was arriving, trailed by the man team seven was being assigned to escort.

Kakashi lifted an eyebrow slightly as Sasuke arrived scowling, but didn't say anything about it, instead quickly launching into a brief explanation of the mission.

"This," he gestured at the man, "is Okukou Tsukai, and he's the one you'll be escorting. There's probably going to be trouble on the road, so keep an eye out. The trip should only take two weeks, there and back, but allowing for trouble you'll have three weeks before we'll start worrying."

"You're not coming with us for this one, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked from where she was seated on the ground, her back propped against her travel pack.

"No, I have a different mission to go on. This mission was selected for you since your team is one man down, so it shouldn't be too hard. Just remember to pay attention."

"Hai!" She, Sasuke and 'Naruto' said together.

Sasuke glared at the faint shape of his 'Naruto hallucination', which unmistakably glared back. Why wouldn't it just go away? He had enough trouble as it was, without his guilt over Naruto's condition haunting him in an almost solid form.

"Okay, have fun, guys." Kakashi said in farewell and then sauntered back up the street and out of sight.

Sakura instantly got to her feet and pulled her pack onto her back, then grinned at their 'mission'.

"Hi! I'm Haruno Sakura and that's Uchiha Sasuke. Pleased to meet you!"

The man, middle aged, balding and dressed in rough, sensible brown clothes smiled back. "Okukou Tsukai. You may call me Tsukai-san, since we'll be travelling together.

"Then let's go." Sasuke said shortly and pulled his pack more comfortably onto his back then walked towards the gates of the village, Tsukai and Sakura followed quickly.

They managed an entire hour of travel before the hallucination calling himself Naruto spoke again. Sasuke had hoped it had disappeared since almost as soon as they'd left the village it had disappeared. But it seemed that while he couldn't see it, he could hear it just fine.

" _This_ is boring." The now apparently disembodied voice floating along smack behind Sasuke complained.

Sasuke ignored it.

"I mean _really_ boring… _really, really,_ really boring! Can't you do something while we walk, like talk? Sakura didn't come to see me much, ask her how she is. Sasuke! Ask her. Grrr… Kami! You're useless. Fine, talk to the old guy! What's his name? Tsukani…Tsutaki… whatever. Talk to him!"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched slightly but he refused to acknowledge the voice.

"Who is he? Where's he from? What's with his funny clothing? Go on Sasuke; ask him… _Argh!_ You're so boring! _This_ is _so boring!_ Though I suppose it's better than hanging around my unconscious body all day trying to get Iruka-sensei to go home and rest." There was a sudden short, contemplative silence; then, " _Sasuke, you jerk! We have to go back to the village!_ Iruka-sensei is probably sitting there worrying and now I'm not even there to be worried with him!"

Sasuke jumped slightly as 'Naruto' shouted in his ear and he unconsciously spun around, glaring, "I didn't ask you to follow me!" he snapped.

His eyes landed suddenly on the very startled Tsukai who had been quietly walking a few feet behind him.

"Oh…" he stuttered, "I'm sorry, I'll walk somewhere else then…"

Sasuke blinked as the man walked, very quickly, back along the road to walk with Sakura, then his glare returned full force and he spun quickly on his heel and marched quickly down the road. _Stupid Naruto hallucination!_

"Damnit, Sasuke! The village is the other way!"

"I'm not going back to the village, _dobe_!" Sasuke snapped, quieter this time, "I have a mission to complete. If you're so worried, _you_ go back and _leave me alone_!"

" ** _Argh_**!" the Naruto voice yelled wordlessly, "You're so damned stubborn, you bastard! Why are you always so selfish? All you're thinking is that I'm here to bother _you_ and that I'm a figment of _your_ imagination! Hasn't it occurred to you that I might be _exactly_ who I say I am and that _you have to go back and tell that old hag Hokage and Iruka-sensei that I'm here_?"

Sasuke wordlessly stomped onwards down the tree-lined road.

"Damnit, if I could touch things I'd _so_ kick your arse right now! Well damnit, Sasuke. Until you go back to the village and tell the old hag I'm here, I'm not leaving! I'll be with you every second of every day and _I'll never leave you alone!_ Not even to shower! That's right! I'm going to be here _all the time_ and you can't get away from me!"

"I don't care! Just shut _up_!" Sasuke snapped and Naruto obliged, though Sasuke was sure he could feel a pair of angry eyes digging into the back of his neck as he continued to walk.

At various times throughout the day the Naruto-shape faded in and out of his vision; most of the time it was barely visible, other times it was like it had been that morning and almost completely solid looking. 'Naruto' had dogged his steps all day. While he had stayed quiet, he was still there, and made sure Sasuke knew it; walking so close that, if he had been real, he'd be breathing down Sasuke's neck and, as it was, it made the hair of the nape of his neck stand on end; and at other times he would walk in front of Sasuke, pulling occasional faces at him, or just generally trying to annoy him.

It wasn't till nearly sunset that 'Naruto' spoke again and it surprised Sasuke into looking up, searching for someone that at the moment he couldn't see.

"Oi, Sakura and the old guy look ready to pass out."

"Hn?" Sasuke looked around and behind him till he finally caught the sight of Sakura and Tsukai as they struggled to keep up with the pace Sasuke had been keeping in his irritation. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched slightly and he looked around, noticing that 'Naruto' had unconsciously picked a perfect place to interrupt their journey for the night.

Sasuke waited silently for the other two to catch up with him, then he glared at Sakura, "If the pace was to much, you should have said so. We'll camp now and go slower tomorrow."

Sakura's already flushed face heated slightly, "We…we were alright. Well… I was alright. Maybe going slower tomorrow would be better for Tsukai-san though…"

"Hn." Sasuke turned away and then dropped his pack down by a convenient tree. "I'll get firewood for a fire. Tsukai-san, get some rest; Sakura, try and prepare something to eat before we lose our light."

"Stop being so bossy." 'Naruto' snapped at him as he walked deeper into the trees and began to gather up enough wood to last the night. "I don't know why Sakura-chan hangs off you so much, you're so selfish and bossy; you don't even know when your companions are about to fall over from exhaustion."

Sasuke stood a longish length of wood up against a tree and stamped on it hard, snapping it into two more manageable lengths, "I didn't notice because normally I have _you_ making us stop all the time." He muttered.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw 'Naruto' fade back into his vision, shrugging.

"That's true. It's funny though; I'm not tired after all that walking. Or hungry. I haven't been hungry since that Jutsu was used on me."

"Baka! That's because you don't have a body!"

'Naruto' glared. "I do too! It's just back in Konoha…"

"Baka!"

"S…Sasuke-kun?"

What was moving along nicely into becoming an almost comfortable argument, stopped abruptly with the intrusion of Sakura as she slipped out from behind a tree.

"Sasuke-kun, do you need any help?"

Sasuke glared at the girl then nodded shortly and dumped his entire load of wood into her arms.

"Take that back to camp, make a fire; a _small_ fire, dig it deep so it can't be seen. I'll get more wood."

Sakura paused, looking like she wanted to say something, then simply nodded and headed back to camp.

Sasuke glared at the girls retreating back then began to break up some of the larger bits of deadfall into more manageable pieces.

Everything was silent except for the natural sounds of the forest as Sasuke collected a second armload and the Naruto shape settled for following along behind him; fading in and out of vision as they walked and seeming to be thinking about something. Or anyone else would have seemed that way; since it was supposed to be Naruto, Sasuke decided he wasn't really _sure._

"Ne, Sasuke." 'Naruto' had faded out of vision again and Sasuke nearly dropped his armload as he navigated his way back to camp. "Why do you think you can see me?"

"I can't." Sasuke replied, focusing on his footing on the unstable ground.

'Naruto' growled. "I don't mean right _now_. I mean in general. How come you can see and hear me when no one else, not even the old hag, can?"

"Because I'm the one hallucinating you." Sasuke replied, "Not them. Now shut up."

As he snapped the last, Sasuke found the camp and dumped his load of wood, dropping down next to it as the sun finally began to drop below the horizon and stained the sky a myriad of vying colours.

"Here, Sasuke-kun…" Sakura handed him a pack of travel rations and Sasuke nodded slightly in acknowledgment then turned to peer over the smallish fire Sakura had made, at Tsukai.

"We'll travel slower tomorrow. If I start pushing to much, tell me." He paused then added quietly, "I was irritated today so I was going to fast. We don't want to be out of energy if we're attacked, especially not in these trees."

As Sasuke began to eat the small meal the Naruto shape flashed back into sight at his side, staring with longing at the food.

"So unfaaaair. I know I'm not hungry, but I'd _kill_ for a bowl of Ramen right now…"

The next morning the three travellers, and Sasuke's unwanted hallucination, were back on the road barely even before the sun had properly risen.

Both Tsukai and Sakura were hanging back, letting Sasuke take the lead when it became immediately apparent to them that the boy had obviously had a hard time sleeping the night before and from the looks he was shooting around, they didn't want to get in his way if he decided to take it out on someone.

Sasuke had discovered that the lack of tiredness 'Naruto' had mentioned the day before had also meant he didn't need to sleep, which meant that the damned thing had been bored enough to keep Sasuke up with incessant, annoying, maddening chatter. _All night_.

He'd barely managed to catch more than an hours sleep before 'Naruto' was half shouting into his ear to 'see if he'd wake up' and then talking his ears off about _nothing_. And so Sasuke had greeted the coming of the sun with blurry eyes and a desire to go back to Konoha, not as 'Naruto' wanted, to tell the Hokage that Naruto was still around, but rather to strangle the living daylights out of the coma-ridden boy in an attempt to make him go away. By the Naruto hallucination's reckoning it would work, unfortunately according to his own it wouldn't. So instead he'd settled for grouching at anyone that came near him, and unconsciously setting another gruelling pace down the forested road they were travelling.

Luckily for his companions, he slowed up within barely half an hour as 'Naruto' pointed out that they were nearly running along the road and that even Sakura couldn't keep up that kind of pace. Then maddeningly, he went quiet, leaving Sasuke to fume to himself and plot how many ways he really, _really_ wanted to do his hallucination a great deal of damage very, very quickly.

Hours later, 'Naruto' did finally talk though. It was the happy chirp of ' _Lunch time!_ ' that brought Sasuke to a sudden stop to glare at the see-through figure that had popped up in front of him.

"What?"

"Lunch time! Sakura's stomach is growling; they're to afraid to ask you to stop though, since you're in such a bad mood."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched slightly, "So that's what you've been doing all morning."

"Awww… Did Sasuke-chan miss his Naruto?"

Sasuke snarled and ignored the comment, "If you were going to spend all morning bugging someone who can't _hear_ you, then couldn't you have done it last night and let me get some sleep!"

'Naruto' smirked, "Why would I do that?"

"Be _cause_ this is a _mission_ on which we might be attacked _any minute_ and I need to _rest_." Sasuke snapped and 'Naruto' abruptly snapped out of sight.

Sasuke growled again then turned when he heard footsteps behind him. "We'll stop for lunch." He snapped at the other two and moved to the side of the road, to find a place back into the trees and away from immediate sight.

Lunch was a silent affair and Tsukai and Sakura barely had time to rest their feet and scoff down their small amount of food before Sasuke's irritated pacing had them back on the road again, miserably trying to keep up with his ground eating strides.

Naruto didn't show himself again and after a few hours, Sasuke's tiredness began to catch up with him, making him finally slacken his pace, more out of lack of energy than in consideration of his companions. By the time they finally stopped for the night, Sasuke was ready to drop from exhaustion. It took nearly the last of his energy to gather up enough firewood to last the night and after assigning Sakura the first watch, he curled himself up in his blanket and finally let himself get some rest.

He felt as if his head had barely touched the ground when a familiar, annoying voice in his ear, awaked him.

"Come on, asshole, wake up! Sasuke! Damnit, you lazy bastard, wake up!"

Sasuke pulled his blanket over his head with a groan, "Leave me the hell alone, Naruto!"

"S…Sasuke-kun. It's your turn for watch."

Sasuke yanked the blanket off his head and blinked at Sakura who was kneeling beside him, then his eyes picked out the slight distortion in the air beside her that was 'Naruto'.

"I'm up." He said flatly and Sakura nodded, giving him an odd look before she went to her own blanket to sleep.

"Good morning." 'Naruto's' irritating voice stayed with Sasuke as the black haired boy extracted himself from his blanket and put it away, "Did you get enough beauty rest tonight?"

"Go away, _dobe_."

"I'm bored."

Sasuke ignored the complaint and pulled himself up into the nearest tree, beginning to scout around the camp.

"There's nothing around." 'Naruto' said. "I looked around a few minutes ago, lots of birds, a few rabbits, there's a small stream about two minutes north-west of here so you can refill your water bottles; but that's about it. It's so boring."

Sasuke ignored that too and continued his scouting and, to his chagrin found everything 'Naruto' had said to be completely correct. Even the stream.

"Told you so, asshole." 'Naruto' said smugly, "Maybe now you'll accept I'm not a hallucination. Hallucinations can't scout around while the person having them is _sleeping_."

"Shut up." Sasuke snapped and turned from the stream, making his way back to the camp. It didn't help that he had a point. If 'Naruto' really _was_ a hallucination, then how _did_ he know about the stream? His brow farrowed as he tried to figure it out and he ended up spending the rest of the night trying to figure out the puzzle as he ignored 'Naruto's' pointless chattering. By the time the sun was coming up and he was waking Sakura and Tsukai, Sasuke still hadn't come to a feasible conclusion, but he refused to accept that the spectre following him around could actually _be_ the _dobe_ ; _that_ was completely impossible.

"So, are we walking at a decent pace today?" 'Naruto' was invisible again, but Sasuke could tell from the direction of his voice that he was behind him.

"Hn. Let's go." Sasuke directed the command at Sakura and she nodded, pulling her backpack on and falling back to walk with Tsukai again.

"This is one of the most boring missions we've been on." 'Naruto' whined after they'd walked for a while.

"I already told you that you didn't need to come."

'Naruto' snorted, "And I already told you that it's your own fault that I did. And you still think I'm a hallucination, don't you? Even after the scouting last night, and you call _me_ stupid."

"Shut up!"

"Geeez, Sasuke. Is that _all_ you know how to say?"

Sasuke went silent again. It was too weird, too _strange_ to be plausible; but on the other hand, this was Naruto. With that _dobe_ even the most outrageous things could become plausible. But could a Jutsu really do something like what 'Naruto' was claiming it had? From the description he'd given Sasuke, Sasuke could only assume that he'd been sealed _outside_ his body, instead of within it, but how would that be possible? _Could_ you oust someone's spirit from their body?

Sasuke blinked suddenly and stopped walking. Wasn't that a little how Ino's main Jutsu worked? She removed her own spirit from her body and placed it into someone else's, taking it over and suppressing the original spirit for a limited amount of time.

He started walking again. If that Justu could be reversed so that instead of removing your own spirit, you removed the others…

"Oi, _dobe_."

"Don't call me that." 'Naruto' appeared beside Sasuke suddenly, and Sasuke had to stop himself from jumping slightly. He ignored Naruto's comment.

"The Jutsu that was used against you. What happened?"

"You know what happened."

Sasuke glared, "I only know what Sakura saw, and she didn't see much. I want to know what you saw."

"Hmmm…" 'Naruto' scratched the back of his head in thought, "Well, Sakura-chan was being backed up against that tree so I ran over to help her. The guy had just knocked Sakura-chan's Kunai out of her hand and so I just threw myself in between them and smacked the guy one in the nose. He was really mad then, I guess he realised that I'd dealt with his two buddies." The comment was accompanied by a smirk; "Hmmm… then he made a few signs I haven't seen before and he leapt forward and grabbed my arms. Next thing I know I'm following behind you and Sakura-chan as you lug my body back to Konoha."

"What signs?"

"Eh?"

"What signs did he make, before he did the Jutsu?" Sasuke replied in annoyance.

"Oh. Something like…" Naruto did a complicated series of gestures that Sasuke studied hard. "That's not completely correct. But I didn't see them properly."

Sasuke frowned slightly then sighed. He couldn't expect Naruto to remember them perfectly; he was just going to have to count himself lucky that the _dobe_ remembered them at all.

"So, does this mean you believe me now?" Naruto smirked.

"Hn." Sasuke decided the enigmatic grunt was the safest response as he tried to fit the gestures Naruto had just shown him in with the way he'd seen the dead man use his Chakra and turn them into a coherent Jutsu in his mind. They didn't fit, but now Sasuke had a little more to work with he knew that it was only a matter of time before he figured out how it was done, what exactly was done, and most importantly, how he was going to reverse it.

"Oi… Sasuke." Naruto had stopped walking alongside Sasuke and was now staring out at the trees.

"What?" Sasuke asked shortly, not stopping.

"There's something…odd in the forest."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked back at Naruto, automatically checking the positions of Sakura and Tsukai as well, "What?"

"Something…" Naruto's eyes were raking the forest, puzzled, "I think there's someone watching us, but he's masking his Chakra oddly. It makes him feel…weird."

Sasuke leaned up against a tree, pretending to be waiting for his companions to catch up, and let his senses move around the area, silently touching everything carefully with his own Chakra and testing it for anything out of the ordinary.

"…I don't feel anything, _dobe_."

Naruto looked visibly startled, "It's over there." He pointed slightly upwards and to the right, into the forest.

Sasuke narrowed down his search to the area, but still felt nothing more threatening than a few squirrels and some birds.

"There's nothing there, baka."

Naruto glared at him, "Don't call me that! Just because you're to brain dead to be able to sense it! It's clear as damned day, I don't know what your problem is!"

"I don't have a problem!" Sasuke turned, his eyes narrowing, "There's just nothing ther…"

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke snapped his mouth shut abruptly and turned to Sakura and Tsukai. Frowning slightly in annoyance, Sasuke flicked his eyes to where Naruto was glaring daggers at him and then back to Sakura again.

"Stay close from now on. Kakashi-sensei said to expect trouble so we should keep an eye on the forest from here on."

"Hai." Sakura agreed with a nod and then they started out again, now keeping Tsukai between them, Sasuke leading and Sakura behind.

Naruto was staying surprisingly visible now as they walked, and he was constantly pacing around the group of three, occasionally pausing to stare into the forest, first on one side of them, then the other.

Sasuke had an almost permanent frown on his face. Whatever it was that Naruto could sense, _Sasuke_ most assuredly could _not_ sense it. He was keeping a constant vigil, but all he could sense for miles around them was wildlife.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke twitched slightly and looked back over his shoulder at Sakura, "What?"

"Is there something out there? I can't sense anything so I'm not sure…"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, "I can't sense anything…" Naruto had stopped suddenly and was looking up into the forest again, his expression serious, "…but be ready anyway."

"Don't stop for lunch." Naruto suddenly said and moved back over to Sasuke's side.

Sasuke looked back at where Sakura and Tsukai were walking within hearing distance and settled for looking at Naruto questioningly. The boy was looking jitterier than Sasuke had ever seen him, his eyes flicking backwards and forwards around them as if he were attempting to keep an eye on every single tree they passed at once.

"I just think it'd be a bad idea. It'd create a weakness and I don't think you want to do that around the guy that's watching us."

"How very _un_ -Naruto." Sasuke murmured and Naruto glared at him.

"Shut up. I _can_ be serious, you know. You'd be worried too, if you could feel the aura I can. I can't tell if this guy's weird, insane, or just plain evil. It's like he's surrounded in darkness or something, I've never felt anything like it. I…"

Naruto's eyes suddenly went wide and he dropped into a fighting stance and stared into the trees, "Sasuke! He's coming!"

Sasuke's reaction was almost instinctive. The amount of times he'd heard the note of warning in Naruto's voice, more than any belief that what he said was true, had Sasuke activating his Sharingan and pushing Tsukai back into a startled Sakura's arms; all in one motion.

As soon as his Sharingan came into effect Naruto's half see-through form snapped into complete solidity. Sasuke blinked at him, then looked up at the trees, filing away the information for later. He hadn't looked up a moment to soon either, as the first thing he saw was the fiery, Chakra wreathed form of a man hurling himself down out of the trees.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw Naruto hurl himself up into the air to punch the man and pass straight through him. _Baka_.

The man hit the ground a moment later, and Sasuke was on him, first throwing a few Shrukin that were easily dodged and then following them up with a firm punch that, unsurprisingly, connected.

From there it was a fistfight in purest form. The man was fast, to fast to allow Sasuke any time to prepare a Jutsu, and he simply had his hands full attempting to predict where the man would attack next. He was finding his Sharingan a perfect blessing as he swung and ducked, kicked and dodged because he still, even though he could see the man before him, plain as day, couldn't sense him.

Taking a blow to the jaw that sent him staggering to the side briefly, Sasuke quickly rolled and stared around himself wildly, hunting out his opponent who had suddenly disappeared.

"Above you, you idiot!"

Sasuke threw an arm up to protect himself as the man dropped from the trees above and managed to catch him by surprise, grabbing the mans wrist and yanking down hard, forcing him to slam abruptly into the ground and then delivering him a sharp blow to the head, knocking him out instantly.

"S…Sasuke-kun! Are you alright?" Sakura was instantly at his side and Sasuke looked up; suddenly realising he could feel a trickle of blood making it's way down his cheek. He wiped at his face absently, "Tsukai-san?"

"He's alright." Sakura said, staring at the blood Sasuke had just smeared down his face, "There was only one guy."

"There isn't!" Naruto appeared beside Sakura, his eyes darting around the forest and his hands twitching as if itching for a fight. "Sasuke, there's more of them; more of these guys with the weird Chakra. This guy was a distraction, they're surrounding us!"

Sasuke momentarily forgot that Naruto wasn't really there. He forgot that Sakura and Tsukai couldn't see him and that it was only his Sharingan that made the boy look completely solid.

"What?" He launched himself up from his crouched position and glared at Naruto, "You said you could only sense one guy, where the hell did the others come from?"

"I don't _know_! I want to know why you can't sense them at _all_! Whatever Jutsu they're using probably hides them until they're a certain distance away."

Sasuke glared and pushed a lock of stray hair back from where it had gotten loose from his head protector, "Fine. How many?"

"Too many! I can't count them Sasuke, we have to move, they've almost got us surrounded," he suddenly pointed to the forest on their left, "I think that's the only clear path, I can sense them everywhere else."

"Kuso! Sakura!" Sasuke turned to the girl and ignored the look she was directing at him, "Get Tsukai-san and run, that way!" he pointed in the same direction Naruto had pointed and focused on watching Naruto to tell where the enemy was coming from. When Sakura didn't move he glared at her, " _Now_! We're being surrounded."

That spurred the girl into movement and grabbing Tsukai by the arm she dragged him into the forest, with Sasuke bringing up the rear, a Kunai now in each hand as he half watched Naruto, and half scanned the area around them.

They were only a few metres into the forest when Sasuke noticed the stillness around them. All the wildlife that _had_ been around, were now gone, wisely seeking out small hiding places until the ninja's and their pursuers had passed by.

"Sasuke! Make her go right!" Naruto suddenly yelled from where he had taken up a position ahead of them.

Sasuke nodded slightly, "Sakura. Go right!"

The girl cast an odd look back at him, which he ignored, then she obeyed, dragging Tsukai still by the arm.

He was seeing flashes of movement in the trees now, now and again he saw the Chakra wreathed figures pacing along behind them as they ran and he cursed. They were almost playing with them, he realised. They were probably planning on running Sasuke's group to exhaustion and then they would probably attack when they could barely defend themselves. But even Sasuke could tell now that it was pointless to stop and fight. With only the two of them able to fight it would be a hands-down loss. Naruto's odd ability to sense them wouldn't help in a situation like that.

" _Left_ , Sasuke! Away from the road!"

Sasuke cursed softly and sped up till he managed to get close enough to tell Sakura the direction without giving it away to the people that followed them.

They changed direction again, and Sasuke again fell back, this time in time to dodge a Kunai that flew out of nowhere and nearly pinned his arm to a tree.

"Kuso!" Sasuke paused for a second to yank the weapon out of the tree trunk and then, not bothering to try and spot his enemy, returned it to where it had came, then ran onwards, guarding Sakura and Tsuakai's back.

They spent almost an hour running randomly through the forest, led by Naruto's yelled directions and spurred onwards by the now almost constant attacks at their back.

Naruto had finally managed to figure out the number of people following them and Sasuke wasn't impressed by it. There were nearly twenty men after them and somehow, Sasuke would have to defend against them on his own.

He could hear Tsukai's breath coming in harsh, laboured pants as they continued to run and Sasuke cursed. They'd have no choice but to stop soon, both he and Sakura would be able to keep going, but Tsukai was almost spent.

"Sasuke." Sasuke narrowly stopped himself from throwing a Kunai through the image of Naruto that suddenly appeared beside him, back from wherever he had gone when he'd yelled at Sasuke that he was going to scout around the area. "Sasuke there's a place that we can hide up ahead. If we can hold those idiots following us back then maybe Sakura and Tsukai can get there and hide without anyone knowing where they went."

"How far ahead? Where?"

"If they keep running at the same speed then it'll take them a few minutes to get there. There's a stream up ahead. If they follow it downwards they'll see a huge dead tree half in the water, they should be able to duck under it to get out of the water without being noticed, then if they head a little back towards the road there's the cave. It's in the side of a small hill, with a tree growing over it. Damned if I know what made it, but they'll have to crawl down a bit, then it widens out into an underground room."

Sasuke hit the ground suddenly, narrowly avoiding a Kunai that had been thrown at him.

" _Bastard_!" Naruto glared up into the trees, "Who the hell threw that! It went right through me!"

Sasuke didn't even bother to return fire this time, instead he used the ground as leverage and was running towards Sakura before he'd even managed to get upright.

"Sakura! Go on ahead."

"Sasuke-kun?"

Quickly Sasuke told the pink haired girl the directions Naruto had given him and he glared at her, "Go, now. I'll hold them off for a while, then catch up."

"But how…"

"No time!" Sasuke snapped and pulled his pack from his back and shoved it into Sakura's arms and then abruptly stopped running, pulling his Kunai in front of him in a defensive stance.

"Naruto?"

The blond boy instantly appeared at his side, "Tell me if any of them try to get passed, it's pointless if some of them keep following her."

"Right." Sasuke was surrounded in an instant. He didn't need Naruto to tell him, he could feel it, regardless of not being able to sense the Chakra.

"They all stopped." Naruto said after a moment, and Sasuke looked at him in surprise. "All of the Chakra's I've been feeling have stopped here, none of them followed Sakura."

"What the hell would they do that for?" Sasuke muttered and Naruto shrugged.

"Maybe they think you won't be an easy fight."

"I _won't_ be an easy fight." Sasuke snapped.

"Heh." Naruto smirked, but didn't respond, instead he pointed over Sasuke's shoulder and the black haired boy spun around to see a figure dressed head to toe in black and with no visible village symbol flip down from a tree and onto the ground.

Sasuke tensed as the man walked forward a couple of paces, then stopped.

"Our fight isn't with you." The person, a man, said after a few moments, "If you stop running and hand over the man, then we'll leave you and the girl alone."

Sasuke smirked, "Sorry, no deal."

The man snorted, "I don't make deals. I'll give you another chance, stop protecting the man now, and live. If you don't, we'll kill you now and then do the same to the girl."

Sasuke was barely paying attention to the man now. Instead his attention was mostly on the words Naruto was half whispering to him.

"…Mostly up in the trees. The guy in black has three guys behind him, two on the left, one on the right. There are six guys directly behind you; they're all in pairs. One pair on the ground, one right above them and the other is slightly to the left. There are two guys on your left and four on your right. Do these guys have a travelling in pairs rule or something? Shesh. Anyway, their Chakra all feels kinda average, except for that main guy there. He might be a little hard."

Sasuke nodded slightly in response to Naruto's words, then smirked at the man before him again.

"You can try, we won't go down so easily."

"Really? What a pity." The man stepped backwards and gestured at Sasuke, "Kill him."

Sasuke was ready for the attacks and launched himself into the air as a half dozen Kunai suddenly lodged themselves into the dirt where he had just been standing.

Flipping in mid-air, Sasuke launched the two Kunai he'd been holding into the foliage and immediately Naruto yelled that the Chakra's of the pair to Sasuke's left had gone; direct hits, both of them.

Flipping in mid-air again, Sasuke planted his feet firmly against the trunk of a tree and, focusing his Chakra to his legs, he pushed himself off of it, flying through the air again at an unbelievable speed and disappearing into the foliage where Naruto had reported the set of four guys had been hiding to his right.

The first two were easy to find. Surprised at Sasuke having come straight at them when their Chakra was supposed to be hidden from him, they didn't have enough time to move before Sasuke had pulled two more Kunai from the pouch at his belt and they fell to the ground, one with his throat slit and the other with a Kunai lodged through his eye.

The second pair was harder to find. They were above Sasuke and had recovered from their shock by the time Sasuke had gotten himself up into the treetops and he had to duck quickly as they sent a second flurry of Kunai flying at him.

Unfortunately for them, the attack had revealed to Sasuke where in the tree they were hiding and within seconds the bodies of both men fell limply from their perches, the dull thuds of the bodies hitting the ground echoing through the sudden silence of the forest like a gunshot.

Sasuke didn't linger where he was, like lightning he leaped through the trees again, casting around for any kinds of movement. He'd lost the element of surprise now, and the remaining men would be assuming that Sasuke could somehow feel their hidden Chakra.

Where was Naruto?

Coming to a halt, Sasuke went completely motionless, and blocked out his Chakra to remain hidden as he looked around for the blond haired _dobe_. It took him a moment to see the other boy and when he did his eyebrow twitched. Naruto was still in the small clearing Sasuke had stopped in, standing next to the man who had spoken to Sasuke, who hadn't bothered to hide himself even after six of his men had been killed before his eyes, and ineffectively trying to punch him, growling as every hit and kick passed through the man with no effect.

It took a while, but Naruto finally stopped and made a rude gesture at the man before turning around, his eyes searching the trees around him, looking for either Sasuke or their enemies, Sasuke wasn't sure.

The man in black, obviously the leader of this group, was either extremely cocky, or extremely powerful, Sasuke decided after a moment, or else he wouldn't still be standing in plain sight. Sasuke thought for a moment, then his eyes narrowed. _Or_ he was acting as a beacon. By standing in plain sight he was trying to present Sasuke with an 'irresistible mark' so that they could try and figure out his location.

Sasuke smirked. How stupid did they think he was? Maybe the _dobe_ didn't have enough sense to see the trap for what it was, but there was no chance Sasuke would walk into it. Or at least, he wouldn't walk into it unless he had all the aces. The problem was getting Naruto's attention so he could find out where the rest of the enemy had hidden themselves.

As if he'd heard himself summoned, Naruto looked directly at the tree where Sasuke was secreted and grinned.

"Oi, Sasuke." He yelled, "You are aware that there are two guys hidden on the branch underneath you, right?"

Sasuke's eyes went wide and if possible he went even more still and then carefully looked downwards, searching with all the power of his Sharingan for the men.

"I wouldn't panic," Naruto had walked over and was peering up the tree, "They haven't figured out you're above them either. One's laying flat on the branch directly beneath you, he's hard to see cause his clothing is the same colour as the branch, the other has moved to the branch under that, he's out towards the edge of it."

Moving carefully, Sasuke leaned outwards from his branch slightly and finally his eyes caught the small flares of the two men's Chakra. He moved back again and then pulled two Shrukin from his leg holster and sent them spiralling downwards in one easy flick of his wrist. Both of them hit their marks and the two alert men both silently went limp, luckily this time not sliding to the ground, or making any sound to give away Sasuke's position.

Naruto's expression passed over the two dead men, his eyes dull in a way that had always somehow made Sasuke feel like some kind of bloodthirsty monster every time a mission had required them to kill, then the blond looked up at Sasuke again, "All of the others are staying around that asshole over there." He gestured at the man who was still in plain sight.

Sasuke slowly lowered himself down the tree, till he was near enough to Naruto that they could talk without giving away his position, "Have they moved at all since those two died?"

Naruto shook his head.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes in thought, "So whatever Jutsu they're using that keeps them hidden from me, is probably keeping them hidden from each other as well."

"Why don't you attack the main asshole?"

Sasuke glared at Naruto in annoyance, "Because that's a trap, baka. He's probably trying to get me to attack him so that the others can see where I am to attack me. I won't attack him until all the others are gone. And if he can't sense their Chakra, the same as me, then he won't even know they're all dead until he calls for them and they don't come."

Naruto nodded. "How do you plan to get at them though, they're all staying together over there now. You won't be able to get rid of them one at a time, they'll all know when you attack and you'll end up with them all attacking you anyway."

Sasuke scowled, "I'm working on that."

Sasuke sat still, thinking hard for a plan of attack that hopefully wouldn't result in him getting killed. Things would have been a lot easier if Naruto had have been able to fight with him. After a moment, Naruto suddenly stood upright and stared into the forest.

"Sasuke, if you have a plan, you better do something about it now, I think… I think there are more coming."

Sasuke cursed. And then suddenly stared upwards as the sound startled a bird from above him into flight.

" _Sasuke_!"

Sasuke didn't have to hear anything else. Immediately he dropped from his branch onto the ground and met a man dressed in mud brown coloured clothes as he was about to climb up. They both brought up their Kunai at the same time and the clang of the two weapons meeting echoed in the silence, sending a few more birds into the air.

"Behind you!"

Sasuke ducked quickly and the man from in front of him stumbled backwards, a Shrukin buried in his throat. Reaching forward, Sasuke grabbed a hold of the weapon as the man fell and pulled it out of his throat, hurling it behind him, even as he spun and threw himself backwards, his eyes darting around as he tried to identify all his targets.

"Two on your right, three on your left, you grazed the arm of the one that was behind you, there's one above you, and the main guy is still where you left him." Naruto called quickly and Sasuke reacted, leaping forward to finish off the guy that had been behind him. A movement out of the corner of his eye sent him to staggering backwards quickly though, before he could do anything, as a Kunai flew passed him, through the air where he almost was.

"Damnit, still to many." He muttered and dodged right, towards where Naruto had said there were only two guys. Instantly he disappeared into the foliage and he moved his hands quickly, performing the signs for the Buushin no Justu. A shadow clone popped into being beside him and they both leapt upwards into the trees, he going left, the clone going right. It required some fancy footwork, but he managed to avoid crashing straight into the man that appeared before him, and a swift push knocked the man from his tree branch and Sasuke sent the bloodied Kunai that was still in his hand hurtling downwards after him, hitting the man as he hit the ground. Another one down.

Further along the line of trees, Sasuke's clone encountered the second man and launched itself at him, Kunai clashed between them and Sasuke watched carefully for the other men left to go in that direction. He wasn't disappointed and soon he had thrown himself from his tree branch and landed on the back of a man slightly bigger than he was. The man grasped at Sasuke's arms, but the black-haired boy growled and kneed him in the back then quickly, while the man briefly released his arms in surprise, grabbed the mans chin firmly and wrenched it to the side, snapping his neck with a painfully loud cracking sound.

His clone finally brought down the man it had attacked, but just as Sasuke snapped the neck of the man he had encountered, a Kunai pierced through the clone's neck and it disappeared with a puff a smoke.

Sasuke felt the return of Chakra and instantly took to the trees again.

"Sasuke! Below you!" Sasuke moved quickly at Naruto's cry but couldn't avoid the weapon hurled at him quickly enough, the blade lodging itself in his upper left arm. He grit his teeth against the pain and pulled the thing out and hurled it back the way it had come, dearly hoping it hadn't been dipped in poison, then swung down from his tree with his good arm and moved along the ground for a moment.

He almost yelled when Naruto suddenly appeared before him, peering at his bloodied arm with concern. Sasuke just glared at him and Naruto pointed ahead of them.

"There are two. The other two are behind, the Kunai hit the guy who threw in the chest so he's down, but not dead."

"Where ahead?"

"One up, one left."

Sasuke immediately dodged left and pulled another Kunai from his pouch, meeting the guy Naruto had said was there almost immediately. He didn't need the attention the clashing sound their weapons would create this time so instead of bringing his weapon up, Sasuke ducked and drove his blade into the mans knee, making him buckle. The man groaned in pain and Sasuke scowled, and slashed his Kunai across the man's throat so that the groan died out into a half silent gurgle.

"Behind you!" Naruto warned sharply and Sasuke dodged, ending up with his back against a tree as a man's fist, glinting with a set of metal knuckles, flashed passed where his head had just been.

The man punched at him again and Sasuke ducked, the knuckles biting into the tree behind him. Lashing out, Sasuke kicked the man in the shin then kneed him in the stomach and took a hold of the wrist that was still extended towards the tree and yanked the man forward onto the Kunai Sasuke held against the man's chest.

The man fell with a groan and Sasuke pulled the bloodied weapon back from his chest and carried on moving.

"Naruto, how many?"

"Only one left. Well…two if you count that bastard who's just been standing over there watching."

"Where's the one left?" Sasuke demanded and gasped slightly as a branch slapped across the wound in his arm.

"Right in fro…"

"Kuso!" Sasuke swore as he slammed into the man, knocking them both to the ground in a scrambling heap. Sasuke rolled away quickly and regained his feet at the same time the other man did. The two stared at each other for a moment and Sasuke could sense anger in the man's gaze. Well it couldn't be helped; Sasuke _had_ just killed his teammates.

Sasuke dodged as the man threw himself at him and spun around to keep him in front. The man didn't stop, simply spun around, brought his Kunai back up in front of him and threw himself at Sasuke again.

This time Sasuke purposefully fell backwards, grabbing a hold of the man's shirt as he fell and, pushing his feet into the mans stomach, he kicked him straight over him and onto his back. Sasuke was on him in an instant and a sharp rap to the head with a butt end of his Kunai left the man unconscious instead of dead.

"Naruto, is he still where he was?" Sasuke demanded and Naruto shook his head.

"He just left. He's heading towards where I can feel the others coming from. Sasuke we have to hurry up and go."

Sasuke nodded, staggered to his feet and, transferring his Kunai to his free hand, he clutched at his wounded arm. Immediately pain shot through the limb and Sasuke grit his teeth against it. He didn't have a choice, he'd have to pause at the stream and wash it out if he could and bind it.

"Lead the way to the cave." Sasuke demanded and Naruto nodded quickly, running off through the trees with Sasuke close behind him.

It took barely a minute for the two to reach the stream and without hesitation Sasuke splashed into it and followed Naruto downstream. When they reached the dead tree that was laying half in the water though, Sasuke stopped him and crouched down into the water, quickly ripping off his ruined sleeve and used it to clean out the cut. Luckily it didn't look deep or poisoned, but it would probably need stitches.

"Is it okay?" Naruto asked quickly and Sasuke nodded slightly and wrapped the wet sleeve around it to help stop the blood flow.

"It didn't hit anything important, it'll probably need stitches though." He reported then turned to examine the tree.

"This way." Naruto said and ducked under a few branches.

Sasuke followed and soon found the way up the bank. As soon as he was up, Naruto took off at a run again, leading Sasuke back towards the road.

It didn't take long to get to the small hill Naruto had mentioned and soon Sasuke was scrambling head first down a tight tunnel that went almost straight down.

"Sakura-chan! You're alright!"

The cry came from up ahead and Sasuke felt himself relax slightly. Quickly he crawled down the last of the passage and then dropped out at the end, flipping in mid-air to land on his feet on the dirt floor. He was surprised when he looked around the hole to find that Sakura had lit a lamp of some sort.

"S…Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke's gaze turned to where Sakura was standing in front of Tsukai, the Kunai she'd just been holding up protectively hanging forgotten in her hand.

"Hn." Sasuke replied and looked around the hiding place Naruto had found. It wasn't a big room, but it was one that had obviously been dug by human hands. The floor, walls and roof were packed down, so the dirt didn't collapse. Judging from the angle the tunnel went on it was quite deep down. Sasuke looked back at the entrance of the tunnel and nodded slightly to himself when his glance revealed that no sunlight was filtering down, which meant that the entrance really was well hidden, even after three people had used it.

For the moment they were safe.

Sasuke let himself collapse to the floor in a tired heap as the words filtered through his brain, and Sakura was at his side in an instant.

"Sasuke-kun, are you alright?"

"Hn. My arm needs to be properly bandaged till we get to a healer so it can be stitched."

Sakura nodded slightly, "I saw some medicinal herbs on the way here, I can use them to keep the wound clean."

Sasuke frowned, "You can go get them later. I got rid of the group that were chasing us, but there were more coming. We'll stay down here until it's safe to move."

As Sasuke spoke, Sakura had pulled a small medical kit out of her pack and, leaving the arm until she could get hold of the herbs she'd seen on the way to the cave, she began cleaning up the cut on Sasuke's cheek. Sasuke glared at her then turned his gaze to Tsukai.

"Were you injured?"

Tsukai's own gaze had been pinned to Sasuke the entire time and now he shook his head.

"Good." His attention turned back to Sakura suddenly and frowned at her, "Don't bother bandaging it, it's only a scratch and we'll probably need the bandages later."

"But…"

Sasuke glared and then turned back to Tsukai, "How come there are so many after you? This was supposed be an easy mission."

Tsukai's expression turned worried, "I'm not sure. I don't know why so many would be after me; I assure you that if I had known I would have mentioned it. I wouldn't gamble with my life like that. Perhaps something happened within the group that I'm not aware of yet. I'm sure we'll find out once you get me home."

Sasuke stared at the man for a moment, then nodded.

"Get some rest. We don't know when we'll have to leave here and it'd be better if we had all our strength when we do. We'll probably spend from here on running."

The other two nodded and settled down to rest, and Sasuke got up and grabbed his pack from where Sakura had left it by the wall then settled himself directly below the entrance to their hiding place.

Naruto settled himself next to him, his eyes closed.

"Their Chakra's are sorta fading in and out of my senses." He reported, "I never was any good at this." He muttered and screwed his eyes shut harder.

"Just try to tell when they come close. It doesn't matter where they are at the moment, so long as they aren't right above us. Wake me if they are."

"Sure." Naruto replied absently, his eyes still closed as he worked on focusing enough to sense the Chakra's that were still quite a ways from them.

Sasuke closed his eyes, finally deactivating his Shanringan as he did so. He wasn't really planning on sleeping, but he knew he was tired enough after that fight to do so if he relaxed. Now that he had a moment to think he was going to try unravelling some of the many mysteries that surrounded his attackers. The main one being the fact that Sasuke couldn't sense their Chakra, whereas Naruto _could_. The fact that Naruto _could_ probably had something to do with him being in a plain spirit form, instead of in a body; which meant that the Jutsu that was being used blocked the bodies ability to sense things more than the spirits ability to do so.

Sasuke shifted slightly, bringing his legs up in front of him and crossing his arms over his knees.

Did that mean that he _was_ sensing their attackers Chakra, but that the Jutsu they used was interfering with his ability to tell that he was? That might explain why he hadn't been able to learn the Jutsu with his Sharingan. It wasn't that he _couldn't_ sense the Chakra, or the Jutsu, it was just that the Jutsu itself was blocking his minds ability to interpret it.

And that was why Naruto wasn't having any trouble with it, and probably why he could only say that their Chakra felt 'weird'.

So now he knew _why_ he couldn't sense it he had to find a way so that he _could_ sense it.

Somewhere amongst is half jumbled ideas and half formed thoughts his exhausted body shut down on him and he fell asleep only to be woken a few hours later by Naruto's insistent whispering in his ear.

"Oh come _on_! You sleep like the dead; I swear it. How do you get up so early every morning? If I slept like you slept I'd probably _never_ wake up!"

"I'm awake, Naruto." He said quietly and heard the other boys sigh of exasperation.

"It's about time! I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes at least."

"Hn." Sasuke sat back against the wall, stretched his legs out before him and looked over at the sleeping figures of Sakura and Tsukai across the room. "Why are you whispering?"

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, "Why are _you_?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Because they," he gestured across the room, "can hear me."

"Oh, yeah. Anyway," Naruto shrugged the conversation off as if it hadn't happened, "there are guys above us. They sorta feel mad, but I don't think they found the cave yet. I'm gonna go up and watch them."

Sasuke nodded, but he may as well have not have as Naruto disappeared, simply popping out of Sasuke's vision as if he'd never been there as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

Sasuke still couldn't sense the Chakra of the people that were supposedly above them and, eyes narrowing, Sasuke went back to the job of trying to figure out a way around the Jutsu.

The only time that the Jutsu really had a weakness was when the ones using it were already dead as being dead they couldn't _use_ the Jutsu, so trying to force them to drop it wouldn't work.

If what he'd established before he had gone to sleep was correct though, then what he needed to focus on was figuring out what exactly it was that stopped his physical body from acknowledging what his senses were trying to tell him and then he had to bypass it. Sasuke scowled. He could have used Naruto right now, so he could question him about how he felt the enemy's Chakra, Naruto could sense it since he was a 'spirit' and the Physical block wasn't there for him.

That was the key, Sasuke was sure of it. If pure spirit wasn't affected then…

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts and his eyes fell on Sakura at the overly loud sound. He quickly put his finger over his lips, "They're up there." He whispered and Sakura looked puzzled, but nodded and moved from her blanket to sit next to him.

"Sasuke-kun?" she said more quietly.

"Hn."

"How…how come you know they're there? I can't sense their Chakra at all, and I couldn't sense it when they were chasing us either."

"They're blocking it, somehow." Sasuke paused then decided to explain, after all, Sakura was the best of team seven at understanding and manipulating Chakra so maybe she would have an idea of some sort. "I think they're not really blocking their Chakra from us, but instead blocking our ability to understand what our senses are telling us in regards to them."

"Blocking our ability to tell that we're sensing them?" Sakura bit her bottom lip and pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them in thought. "Like a blanket."

Sasuke blinked, "What?"

"Well…" Sakura tilted her head slightly; "If you know someone is there, but they throw a blanket over your head you can't see them. But you still know they're there, and if you reach out you can touch them, but because of the blanket you can't see them. That sounds like what they're doing."

"A blanket…" Sasuke murmured the words, thinking it over. It was oversimplified, but correct. "The problem is getting rid of it though."

Sakura chewed on her lip some more as she thought, "It's really weird not being able to sense them. How did you manage to sense them, Sasuke-kun?"

Still deep in thought, Sasuke replied absently, "I can't."

Sakura paused, "Then…how come you know they're up there? And how did you know they were in the forest earlier?"

Sasuke jerked his head up and stared at her, thinking quickly. "…My Sharingan."

Sakura frowned a little but nodded, accepting the explanation.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura paused and gnawed a bit more on her lip. "Who…who were you talking to earlier, before we started running? And…how did you know this place was here? We've never had a mission in this area before but you knew the way…"

"Yeah asshole, how did you know?"

Sasuke started slightly and glared at where Naruto had appeared in front of him. His mind was racing. He _couldn't_ say that he knew because Naruto's spirit was running around scouting, Sakura would think he'd gone nuts.

"Tell her." Naruto demanded and glared at him, "Tell her I'm still here."

Sasuke met Naruto's glare. He wasn't going to tell her; on a mission like this he didn't need her doubting his decisions and she would if she thought he was going deranged.

The uncomfortable silence was suddenly broken as Tsukai sat up and cleared his throat.

Immediately Sakura leapt across the room with her finger over her lips. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief and tried to ignore Naruto's glare.

"Is there any particular _reason_ you're being such a bastard about telling people I'm still here?" Naruto demanded, "I thought that by _now_ you would have figured out I'm real. And if I'm real then you don't have to worry about them calling you insane!"

Sasuke glared across the room then muttered, so quietly he could barely hear himself, "And how exactly do you expect to prove you're real to _them_?"

"I same way I did to _you_ , I'll keep scouting and she'll see that you're getting information you couldn't get on your own."

Sasuke leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling. When he thought about it he could see where Naruto was coming from; Sasuke wasn't unfamiliar with the way Naruto's life had been before he'd been assigned to team seven and being stuck like he was must be almost like going back to the way things used to be.

"Naruto, you know my skills, and you know Sakura. She would probably just assume that I've flipped my lid and that I'm using my skills to prove my insanity to myself. Even insane she would probably decide I was one of the most skilled ninja's in existence." Though the last was said in barely a murmur the annoyance still rang through clearly.

Naruto glared, "But…"

"Just _wait_ , Naruto. Maybe by the time we get back the Hokage would have found something."

Naruto went silent; the scowl on his face showing exactly how much he _didn't_ want to wait. Sasuke ignored it.

"What's going on up there?"

"They left." Naruto said shortly. "They'll be back though, they're trying to lure us out."

Sasuke nodded.

"Aren't you going to say 'thank you'?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and Naruto almost exploded.

"You're only alive right now because of me! And even if you _somehow_ managed to get through all that fighting without my help, you'd still be running, dragging that Tsutai guy behind you!"

"Tsukai." Sasuke corrected mildly and Naruto swung at him, his hand going straight through Sasuke's head.

"Damnit! You're such a _bastard_!"

Sasuke had worked hard not to flinch as Naruto's fist flew at him, but he'd managed it and now he plastered a smirk on his face as he tried to shake off the eerie _chilled_ feeling he'd felt as the hand had passed through him.

"Stop smirking! As _soon_ as I get my body back I'm going to _kick your arse_!"

Sasuke snorted derisively and closed his eyes, "Wake me again if those guys come back."

" _Bastard_!"

"Shut up, _dobe_."

They spent two days hiding underground. Every time it looked like the cost would be clear, Naruto reported that he could feel the Chakra's coming closer again. It seemed their pursuers were determined to do a repeated sweep of the area before they were convinced that Saskue's party had somehow gotten passed them.

And so, two days later, Naruto finally reported that the area was clear and that they could move at any time. Sakura insisted on gathering the herbs to put on Sasuke's nearly forgotten wound before they left though, so Sasuke was left alone with Tsukai as Naruto went silently with Sakura in case of trouble.

Their small dirt haven was silent as Sasuke tied the last of his things into his pack and sat back to wait for Sakura to get back. Silent at least until Tsukai cleared his throat slightly and pinned Sasuke was a piercing look.

"Young man." He began and Sasuke lifted an eyebrow wishing he had an excuse to leave. "I think that you are hiding something from myself and the young lady." He held up a hand as Sasuke's eyes narrowed, "I'm not going to demand you tell me what it is but I will say that it's making Sakura-san very worried about you. I understand from what she tells me that you are normally a three-man team and that you might be feeling guilty over the sickness of your teammate. The young lady thinks it might be the reason for your… odd behaviour."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and asked, despite himself, "Odd behaviour?"

Tsukai's gaze grew, if possible, more intense, "Yes. The most obvious one I can think of would be that you've been talking to yourself almost constantly since we left your village. Child, I suggest that when you get back to your village you take a rest perhaps. Maybe see someone…"

Sasuke couldn't help himself. He laughed. It was quiet and barely rated as an amused chuckle, but it didn't change the fact that he was laughing. It was ironic really; he hadn't mentioned Naruto, yet they still thought he had a screw loose. And Sakura thought it was because Naruto was in a coma.

Glossing over the fact that Sakura seemed to think that Naruto being in a coma would affect him so badly, Sasuke gave Tsukai an amused look and proceeded to spin a story that would hopefully be passed onto Sakura, since the two seemed to enjoy talking about him, and would stop her from asking him any more awkward questions.

"I've gotten into a bad habit lately. I probably picked it up from the third member of our team; he does it a lot." He offered Tsukai a half-smirk, "I spend a lot of time thinking out loud now. It gives me a way of thinking ideas through completely and coming up with plausible arguments. I'm sorry if it's been disturbing you."

Tsukai kept his piercing gaze on Sasuke for a moment longer, then he nodded and looked away, accepting Sasuke's explanation at face-value.

"Sasuke!" Naruto seemed to come flying straight out of the solid dirt wall and Sasuke almost yelled. "Sakura's coming back now. If you two go now, you can meet her at the entrance, she can fuss over your cut and then we can get a move on."

Sasuke nodded slightly and stood up.

"Get your things." He said to Tsukai, "We'll climb up and meet Sakura at the entrance."

Tsukai nodded and followed Sasuke as he began to shimmy back up the dirt tunnel. The trip wasn't hard, though it was dirty, and in moments they were up, blinking at the morning sunlight as they emerged carefully from the tunnel.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched at the yell and he shot a warning glance at the girl who had just spotted them.

"Sorry." Sakura smiled and held up the plants she held in one hand and the cup of water she had in the other, "I'll clean out and bandage your arm now…"

Sasuke nodded and sat down, untying the improvised bandage from the wound and shoving it under a loose flap in his pack.

Naruto glared at him the entire time Sakura fixed up the wound and Sasuke almost growled at him. Instead he settled for gritting his teeth and waiting for the girl to finish.

"Does it hurt, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked in concern and Sasuke looked at her flatly.

"No."

"...Oh. Good."

"Are you done?" he demanded and she nodded and quickly tied a clean bandage around the herb compound she'd made and tied it off.

"Good. Let's get a move on then. Stay alert."

They managed to move quite a long way before the sun reached it's zenith and they paused to rest. They would probably have trouble moving through the forest as they went further, but for the now the forest, away from the road, was easy to move through. When they stopped, Naruto reappeared from wherever he'd disappeared too to scout and reported that they were still in the clear.

"They're hanging around on the edge of my senses, further towards the road. I guess they're guessing that we'll have to go back to the road after a while if we want to keep moving. The forest will probably get pretty thick soon."

Sasuke nodded and moved away from his group slightly, so he could talk to Naruto without winning any new odd looks.

"How many, do you think?"

Naruto put his hand behind his head as he thought, "Not many, they're in small groups, scattered around. So long as they don't take it into their heads to band together, we should be able to take care of them."

"Good, we'll get moving again then." Sasuke turned and walked back to the others and nodded at them, "Let's go."

They stayed moving through the forest for the rest of the day and made a silent camp as the sun began to set. This time they avoided making a fire and simply set a watch before curling into their blankets and sleeping.

Sasuke had the second watch of the night and when Sakura tiredly woke him his eyes immediately took on the red of his Sharingan as he searched around their camp for Naruto.

The blond was waiting for him as he got up and moved across the camp, slightly away from Sakura and Tsukai. Naruto looked up from where he was biting his thumb and staring out into the forest.

"There's a group coming close to us, we might need to get moving soon." He said.

Sasuke looked at him sharply, "How close?"

Naruto closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side in concentration, "Not to close, yet. They might not notice us and go right passed, but they might change direction…"

Sasuke frowned slightly in thought and then settled himself down with his back against a tree. "Tell me if they look like they're getting too close. I want to make sure we're all properly rested before we move."

Naruto nodded.

"You're thinking about something." Naruto said after a while, breaking the almost comfortable silence.

Sasuke glared up at Naruto in annoyance, "I tend towards thinking, unlike certain _others_."

Naruto shrugged, ignoring, or not getting, the implication, "What about?"

"Something you wouldn't understand." Sasuke snapped, "Shut up, _dobe_."

Naruto's back went up and he glared at Sasuke, "Tell me what it is and _I'll_ see if I can understand it."

Sasuke sighed in annoyance. "Fine. I can't sense our attackers, but you can." Sasuke glared at Naruto when the blond looked like he was going to comment, "You can sense them because you're out of your body at the moment, that means that whatever is stopping _me_ from sensing them is purely physical."

Sasuke paused to see if Naruto was still following him, and Naruto nodded, his face screwed up in concentration.

"When I discussed it with Sakura she described it like a blanket." Sasuke said trying to explain in 'Naruto' terms, "Like if two people were standing there and one had a blanket over their head. The person with the blanket over their head would still know that the second person was there, but he couldn't _see_ him.

"I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of that blanket so that I can sense our attackers without your help."

Naruto now had his eyes closed. His arms were crossed over his chest as he thought and he was humming slightly, an annoying habit that made Sasuke almost want to strangle him.

After a few minutes of Naruto doing nothing except humming to himself and keeping his eyes closed, Sasuke figured the other probably hadn't understood a word of it, but was trying to act like he did, and went back to thinking; but not getting far.

There was a trick to it, there had to be. It probably had something to do with his Sharingan, since even the users of the Jutsu didn't seem to be able to sense each other and somehow he had to figure it out.

There was dead silence in the forest now, except for the sounds of the wind echoing through the trees, and so Naruto's voice, when it came, made Sasuke's skin prickle in fright.

"Ne, Sasuke. Can you sense me?"

Sasuke blinked, "What?"

"Can you sense me? I'm a…spirit now, right? Can you feel my Charka?"

Sasuke hadn't thought about it. Tilting his head slightly, he closed his eyes and then opened them again. "Yes. It feels a bit different, but I can feel it."

Naruto was looking at him intently, "But I'm not really here. How can you sense me, then?"

Now Sasuke was just confused. "Of course you're here; or have you changed your mind about that?"

Naruto frowned and leaned closer, "You said it was like a man with a blanket over his head, right? Even though he can't see the other man with him, he can feel him. Well, what if the second man isn't in the same room? He's still there, right? Except he's not."

Sasuke tried to follow the logic; _Naruto's_ logic. "You're saying, that instead of trying to get rid of the blanket, I should just change rooms?"

Naruto made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. "I don't _know_ , I don't really under _stand_ why you can't sense those asshole's Charka; but you can sense me and I'm not really here, and you can't sense them and they _are_ there. You said that when you sense me it feels different, so why don't you just sense them like you sense me and ignore the fact that normally you can't sense them?"

Sasuke frowned and counted it as a point against himself that he could almost grasp what Naruto was getting at. The _dobe_ wasn't sure what he was talking about, but he'd managed to simplify what Sasuke had to told him enough that he'd almost come up with a solution. The way he was sensing Naruto was something he hadn't even been aware of, a kind of buzz at the back of his mind that told him there was energy nearby that wasn't quite the same as the energy everywhere else. It was only because of close association that Sasuke could identify that energy as 'Naruto' though. It wasn't the complete solution, but it was a start. Sasuke had a direction to think in.

"Damnit!"

Sasuke's head snapped up suddenly at Naruto's exclamation and he stared at the other boy. "What?"

"While I was thinking on your stupid problem I forgot to keep an eye on those assholes that are looking for us! They changed direction and are headed straight at us!"

" _What_? Idiot! How far away?" Sasuke was on his feet in an instant, rushing towards where Sakura and Tsukai were sleeping.

"We have a minute or two! They probably found us."

Sasuke cursed under his breath as he shook Sakura completely out of her blankets and then did the same to Tsukai.

"Get your things, now! If they're not important, leave them. Move!"

Tsukai sleepily followed orders, while Sakura quickly gathered her things, slinging her pack onto her back in seconds. Sasuke had left them for a second to get his own pack and then, Kunai in hand he pointed into the trees, "Start going that way." He ordered.

"Sasuke! There's no time!" Naruto bit out the warning before Sakura had taken more than a few steps, "They're here, _now_!"

" _Watch out!_ " Sasuke bit out the warning to Sakura and leapt forward, pushing Tsukai back against a tree.

Instantly Sakura jumped back and took up a defensive position in front of the man, her eyes everywhere. "Where are they? I can't sense anything."

"Quiet!" Sasuke snapped at her, "Use your eyes and your ears, we learnt more than just to sense Charka at the academy!"

Sasuke then ignored the girl, her cheeks flaming red in embarrassment for the reprimand, and moved away from her slightly, his eyes trying to pierce the darkness beneath the trees.

"They're surrounding us, Sasuke." Naruto said and his hazy outline flicked into solidity at Sasuke's side, "They're not going to attack until they've got us completely pinned in; they don't want us to escape again."

Sasuke nodded, he'd already expected that.

"How many? And where?"

"Not as many as before." Naruto frowned, "There are some missing."

"How _many_?" Sasuke snapped.

"There were ten, but now there's only eight."

"Going for reinforcements, probably."

Naruto nodded shortly, his head moving from left to right as he positioned their opponents. "They're in pairs again. Front, back and each side; but they're spread out enough that we can't get passed them."

"We'll have to make this quick." Sasuke said, half to himself, "I don't want any more to arrive." He turned his head back slightly to check on Sakura, "There are eight." He said to her quickly, "Equally spaced around us, keep your eyes open and don't forget to look up."

Sakura nodded firmly and tightened her grip on her Kunai.

"They're attacking!"

"Now!" Sasuke yelled to Sakura as Naruto warned him of the impending attack, and he leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the mix of Shruken and Kunai that landed where he had been standing.

" _Left!_ "

Sasuke moved his Kunai to his left hand and brought it up, stopping the stab that had been made at him and pushed his attacker backwards. Quickly, he spun backwards and, grabbing another Kunai from his leg holster as he moved, stabbed the masked man in the side, ripping the Kunai upwards to inflict as much damage as possible.

Hot, sticky liquid splashed over his hand, making his grip on his Kunai tentative at best, but he simply tightened his hold and continued his spin and slashed quickly across the back of the man's neck. He dropped to the ground instantly.

There was a clash of sound behind Sasuke but he couldn't turn to see how Sakura was fairing as, before the first man had even dropped completely, the second was taking up Sasuke's attention.

Sasuke abandoned his slick hold on his second Kunai and threw it, but the second man dodged it easily.

"Chi' "

"Sasuke, above you!"

Sasuke threw himself backwards as the second man landed where he'd just been, then hit the ground, face first as he sensed a movement in the air. The sword blade pierced the space where he'd been and Sasuke quickly rolled onto his back and kicked the sword holder in the shin. The man grunted in pain, but it didn't stop him from lifting his sword again and plunging it downwards at Sasuke's prone body, piercing him through the side and pinning him to the ground.

An instant later the Clone disappeared in a small puff of smoke and Sasuke swung himself down out of the tree above, yanking hard on the thin, nearly invisible string he'd slung around the swordsman's neck and lifted the man up into the air to hang there, clutching desperately at his neck.

He didn't have time to see if the hasty idea would work, he simply wrapped the string firmly around the handle of a Kunai and slammed it into the side of the tree, hoping it would hold.

Sasuke could still see the two other men who had attacked him and he aimed at them now. Pulling another Kunai and two Shruken from his side holster, Sasuke jumped at the men right from underneath their ally's desperately kicking feet. The two Shruken left his hand quickly, a small distraction for the man furthest away, and at the last minute, Sasuke dived to the left, under the swinging arm of the closest man, and then dodged back in again bringing one hand down hard on the mans wrist to disarm him, and slamming the butt end of his Kunai down on the base of his skull. As he dropped, Sasuke grabbed the falling weapon and focused Charka to his legs to increase his speed and disappeared into the trees.

The item Sasuke now held in his right hand was a weapon of opportunity. Never leave a weapon where an enemy can use it against you, and never overlook _any_ object that could possibly be used offensively. Sasuke stared at it for a moment and then moved his eyes back to the third man that had attacked him. The man looked furious and that fury seemed to be working against him, since he hadn't thought to hide himself when Sasuke disappeared. It was a long shot but…Sasuke hefted the weapon in his hand again then carefully aimed and threw. The small hand axe flew silently through the air and caught the third man in the side of the neck, felling him like a log.

Sasuke's eyes sort out Sakura and couldn't see her. It was then that he realised Naruto was yelling for him.

"…Damnit, Sasuke! Where the hell did you go; Sakura got hurt!"

 _Damnit!_ Sasuke launched himself out of his hiding place and towards the tree he'd left Sakura at. Naruto was there and he pointed frantically to the other side of the tree.

Sasuke rounded it at a run, dodging the bodies of the two unconscious men that Sakura had managed to get and punched the man Tsukai was standing before, wide-eyed, in the side of the head. The blow was unceremonious, clumsy, and hurt like hell, but it forced the man to stagger and gave Sasuke the chance to slam his foot into his stomach, doubling him over, and then bash him in the back of his head, knocking him flat.

"What happened?" Sasuke barked.

"Sakura got hit and she fell. I managed to pull her back here, but that man came."

Sasuke pushed Tsukai out of the way and knelt next to Sakura and checked her pulse, which was still strong; she'd just been knocked unconscious.

"Stupid." He muttered then stood and glared at Tsukai. "Keep an eye on her."

"Is it over now?" Tsukai asked, leaning back against the tree slightly, and Sasuke frowned counting all the bodies he had seen.

"No, there should…"

As he uttered the words three things happened at once.

One was Sasuke spinning on his heel, Kunai raised and eyes wide, searching for any sign of their last assailant.

The second was Naruto's desperate shout of Sasuke's name.

The third was Sasuke's realisation that the warning, and his own turning around had come slightly to late and that the man attacking him was going to succeed.

Sasuke barely had time to register the fact that there was a stinging pain ripping down his left arm though, before his attacker suddenly decided to hurl himself sideways, slam himself into a tree and slump to the ground unconscious.

Sasuke stood still and blinked.

Behind him, Tsukai had lunged off his relaxed position against the tree and was now staring incredulously at the body laying a few feet away.

"Y…young man, that was…a remarkable skill." He said after a moment and Sasuke turned to look at him.

"What?"

"Hitting the man like that, how did you do it?"

When Sasuke had turned he'd remembered the pain in his left arm and he was now clutching it to his side, his head swimming.

"I didn't." He gulped back the pain from his reopened wound and tried to focus, his mind suddenly supplying him with the answer to Tsukai's question.

"…You bastard! _Nothing_ can stand before the great Uzumaki Naruto!"

"...N… _Naruto_?" Sasuke stared towards where Naruto was standing angrily over the unconscious man's body and attempting, unsuccessfully, to kick it.

The word got the blonde's attention immediately and Naruto abandoned his useless attempts too rush to Sasuke's side.

"You're covered in blood, did he get you?" He demanded and Sasuke, still staring, shook his head.

"No…I mean yes." His arm throbbed, reminding him, "My arm again. Naruto you…" Naruto had hit that man? How had he?

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Naruto was dodging around Sasuke trying to see if any of the blood covering him was from visible wounds, almost making Sasuke dizzy.

"No. Naruto, how did you…?"

"What about Sakura-chan?" Naruto interrupted and Sasuke frowned.

"She's fine, only unconscious. How did you-?"

"And the old man's okay? It would suck if he died after all this."

Sasuke growled, "He's _fine_! How the hell did you hit him!"

Naruto stopped his minute search of Sasuke for wounds and stared at him blankly.

"Eh? How else, with my hand."

Sasuke ignored the blood dripping down over his fingers and the throbbing in his arm and tried not to shout, "You can't _touch_ anything!"

Naruto paused completely as understanding suddenly dawned on him and then stared at his hand.

"I…"

"How did you _do_ it?" Sasuke demanded and Naruto looked at him blankly.

"I…I don't know. He was almost on you and I was scared and suddenly…he was just lying over there. I guess I just…just _hit_ him."

"You just _hit_ him?" Sasuke closed his eyes and opened them again, suddenly aware of eyes on him.

Turning slightly he was quick enough to meet Tsukai's gaze for a moment as the man stared at him speculatively, then the older man looked away.

"Shouldn't we be moving now? You should probably talk to yourself later, when we have time to stop."

Sasuke stayed still for a moment, then nodded, "Can you carry Sakura?"

Tsukai nodded.

"Then let's go."

A few minutes later, Sasuke, followed by a slightly bewildered Naruto, and Tsukai, carrying Sakura, made their way, as fast as they could go, from the scene of the fight and did their best to disappear into the forest.

End Chapter 


	4. Skinless Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Author Notes:_ God _damn_ it's cold right now. And remember: 'Dobe' is only one letter away from calling Naruto 'dove'.

Disclaimer: By the power vested in me, I hereby declare this chapter disclaimed.

 **Warnings** : If you've gotten this far, you don't need them.

Chapter Three

They travelled, or rather fled, through the trees for the rest of the night and well past dawn. For that short time small things like pain, hunger, tiredness, the fact that Sakura wasn't waking up, or _how_ Naruto had managed to hit the man attacking Sasuke were forgotten and Naruto led the group on a winding path that focused more on avoiding their pursuers than trying to get to their goal.

Sasuke was following behind Tsukai, who was still carrying Sakura, keeping an eye on their back trail while Naruto ranged ahead, only coming back with small warnings of what directions Sasuke should send Tsukai in before disappearing again.

Sasuke's movements were becoming more and more clumsy as he covered their back trail and the morning wore on and he knew he'd have to stop and rest soon. His arm still hadn't stopped bleeding and he could no longer feel his fingers; it needed to be tended too.

Hastening his pace slightly, Sasuke caught up with Tsukai and began to look around for Naruto; a few minutes later they came across the boy waiting in a smallish clearing.

Naruto's eyes pinned to Sasuke immediately and his gaze seemed to rake over him before he stared fixedly at where Sasuke was now clutching his left arm.

"There's a stream up ahead where you can clean that out, bandage it and give Sakura-chan some water." Naruto stated. "We should be safe for the moment, all the searchers are further west."

Sasuke nodded shortly and, with another concerned look at Sasuke's arm, Naruto began to lead the way to the stream. This time Sasuke took point and wordlessly Tsukai followed behind him.

It didn't take the small group long to reach the stream and immediately Sasuke dropped his pack tiredly beside it and slumped to the ground to rest.

"How's Sakura doing?" He said after a moment and began to rummage in his pack, one-handed, for a clean cloth to wash his wound.

"She's doing fine, she'll probably wake up soon." Tsukai said briskly and set the girl down against a tree, "But your wound…"

Sasuke winced and pulled his small medicinal kit from his pack, "It needs to be cleaned out and bandaged. It hasn't stopped bleeding, it's deep, and it's possible that our back trail can be followed because of it. I'll need your help. …Please." He added.

"Of course." Tsukai sat down beside Sasuke, walking through Naruto, Sasuke noted absently, and dipped a piece of clean cloth into the stream and then began to clean out the wound.

Sasuke kept his expression impassive but he couldn't help the small winces as the blood was roughly washed away.

"Damnit! Be careful." Naruto griped from where he was watching; so close that if he had been solid Tsukai would _never_ have been able to see what he was doing. "I said be _careful_ you stupid old man! What if you damage it worse, that's his _arm_! He _needs_ that to work properly if you want to live through this!"

Sasuke snorted to himself in amusement then stared down at his arm. "Tsukai-san, how good are you at sewing?" he asked and the man stopped what he was doing to stare at Sasuke suspiciously.

"I can mend my shirt if it rips." He said carefully, "Why?"

"The cut is too deep," Sasuke said evenly, "it can't be left like this; I won't be able to use my arm or my hand. I have the correct supplies but I can't stitch it myself, and Sakura is unconscious. You'll have to do it."

"I…" Tsukai stared at Sasuke's arm, almost in horror, "I'm not sure if I can…"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched, "Just try to keep them even and small." He said firmly, "If you mess up too badly it can be fixed by a proper healer-nin after this mission is complete; for now this is all we have."

"Oh… Do…do you have something to dull the pain…?" the old man asked uncertainly.

"Yes, but I can't use it now." Sasuke was already pulling the supplies he needed out of his kit, "I'll need to have all my wits about me if we want to get to our destination alive, or if I'm to keep you alive." He gestured at the needle and medical thread, "Just pretend you're mending your shirt. I'll be fine."

Tsukai took the items carefully, stripping them both from their hygienic bags with hands that only shook slightly and which, thankfully, steadied as he threaded them together.

As Tsukai did that, Sasuke pulled a Kunai out of the pouch on his belt, put the hilt between his teeth and clamped down firmly, then let his arm relax and helped Tsukai push the edges of the wound together.

"Are…you ready?" Tsukai asked tentatively and Sasuke nodded firmly.

"Oi, asshole. Don't pass out." Naruto said, though his voice didn't hold any of the customary hostility that would normally have laced such a comment.

Sasuke didn't even acknowledge the comment, simply closed his eyes and waited for Tsukai to begin.

It hurt like hell. Eyes closed, Sasuke tried to ignore the pain, focusing as much as he could on the Kunai clamped between his teeth and on not making any noise to alert anyone that might be nearby to their location.

Tsukai's first few stitches were hesitant, but after that he focused on trying not to hurry himself (and accidentally making things worse), on keeping his stitches precise and on keeping the wound clean so that he could see what he was doing.

After a while Sasuke had to stop helping to hold the wound shut, or risk damaging himself, and instead clamped his balled up hand tightly against his leg, barely noticing as his fingernails cut four small crescent shaped marks into the palm of his hand. He was aware of Naruto though. He didn't know what the boy was muttering about, his brain far too focused on remaining quite to bother trying to make sense of the words, but Naruto kept up a constant stream of conversation the entire time. Afterwards Sasuke wouldn't admit it, but it had helped.

What seemed like an eternity, but was probably barely half an hour, later, Tsukai tied off the thread and lowered his hand shakily.

"It's…done. Are you…okay?"

Sasuke sat for a moment breathing heavily, then nodded shortly and removed the kunai from between his aching teeth.

"Put…the needle and thread away…clean the arm…and then use some of the…medical cream on it. Then bandage it."

Tsukai nodded and followed the instructions quickly.

"Sasuke?" Naruto was tentative and Sasuke lifted his head to look at the boy who was decidedly see-through at that moment. "Are you okay?"

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and Naruto scowled at him.

"Don't be such an ass!" the blond growled, "If you pass out, Tsukaki is screwed and we've been here too long, the search groups are beginning to get closer again."

Sasuke nodded, not even bothering to correct Naruto's mistake with Tsukai's name. "I'm fine." He murmured and turned to Tsukai again. "We need to get moving, quickly. Clean everything here up, clean the blood on the ground up as best you can, then get Sakura."

Tsukai nodded and Sasuke pulled himself to his feet, ignoring the stabbing pain from his newly bandaged arm and the fact that his head tried to swim off without him.

But Naruto noticed. "Are you sure you're alright, asshole? I can look for somewhere for us to lay low."

"I'm fine." Sasuke said through gritted teeth and swung his pack up onto his back. "We need to get a move on, we've wasted enough time and the pain will ease in a few minutes."

"Idiot!"

"Hn."

"We can go any time, young man." Tsukai unconsciously interjected into the 'argument' and Sasuke nodded and glared at Naruto.

"Fine! But if you all die and I have to walk home alone I will _so_ track you down when I die and _kick your arse_."

"Baka." Sasuke replied lightly, too low probably for even Naruto to hear as the boy spun on his heel and led them away from the stream.

It took longer than Sasuke anticipated but after a while the throbbing in his arm died down enough so that he could ignore it. It didn't stop Naruto from constantly hovering nearby though, a scowl on his face to rival one of Sasuke's worst.

Sasuke ignored him for a while and then gestured slightly for the boy to come over. He'd almost forgotten in the 'excitement' from the night before, but now he was determined to figure out how to sense their pursuers.

"What?" Naruto grouched and Sasuke smirked slightly.

"Describe what the enemy feels like." He asked quietly.

Naruto blinked at him, "What?"

"Well, you've been saying that the enemy feels 'strange' and it has something to do with the way they've been hiding themselves, tell me what they feel like."

"Hmmm…" Naruto tilted his head to the side in thought, "Dark. They feel like they're surrounded by darkness; murky pools of it. Like thick, nasty fog."

"Hn. Where is the nearest group of them?"

"That way." Naruto pointed off into the trees, "About a mile."

Sasuke nodded and concentrated, sending his thoughts out to see if he could sense any Chakra in that direction. Unsurprisingly he could feel nothing except for the normal animals, birds and things that were supposed to be there. Sasuke changed what he was searching for. Instead of trying to sense Chakra he concentrated on the electrical feeling he'd felt when he'd sensed Naruto.

Immediately Naruto's presence at his side flashed into his mind, but he ignored it, instead focusing on trying to find an electrical feeling that _felt_ like Naruto had described it. He let his mind roam left and right, further away from where they were with each pass, touching everything that felt even a little like it…

" _Baka_!"

Sasuke stopped walking suddenly, his eyes flashing open even though he didn't even remember shutting them and stared at the tree he'd almost walked into. Almost, except that for a brief second a hand had been planted firmly in the centre of his chest before suddenly passing through him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Naruto exclaimed and pointed at him, "Pay attention!"

Sasuke ignored Naruto's yelling and rubbed the place on his chest where Naruto had touched him. "I felt your hand."

Naruto stopped yelling and scowled. "Yeah."

Sasuke just stared at him, waiting for him to explain.

"I've been practising all morning," Naruto said grudgingly, "since I hit that guy who almost…almost got you. It's hard to do though. And I can't do it for long." He finished quickly.

"How?" Sasuke demanded and Naruto screwed up his face in thought.

"It's like…like…walking on water. My Chakra doesn't flow like it used to so I didn't think I could control it, but if I concentrate really, really hard and try to keep the pressure even, then I can touch things. …It makes me tired though."

Sasuke just stared at Naruto until Tsukai politely coughed behind him.

"I think Sakura-san is waking up." He said.

With a last, intense look at Naruto's semi-solid form, Sasuke turned to where Tsukai had set Sakura on the ground, her back propped against a tree, and watched as the girl did, indeed, regain consciousness.

"Sakura-san?" Tsukai shook the girl's shoulder gently until she opened her eyes and stared at him blurrily.

"…Tsu...kai-san?"

"Can you walk?" Sasuke said quickly, half with impatience.

Sakura shook her head a little to clear it and looked at Sasuke over Tsukai's shoulder, then nodded. "I…I think so, yes. Where…are we?" She asked as Tsukai assisted her to her feet and helped her take a few steps forward.

"A few miles from where we camped. We're being pursued, you need to move fast." Sasuke answered and turned his head slightly to the left, his eyes scanning the forest, "We can't stay here."

Sakura nodded and motioned for Tsukai to hand her the pack he'd been carrying for her, "I'm fine now."

Sasuke nodded and turned around, his eyes searching out Naruto as he began to walk quickly through the trees again.

"I could sense them less than a half mile or so away, have they moved closer?" he asked quietly as soon as he got close to the boy.

Naruto blinked, "You actually sensed them? I thought you would have been to busy walking into that tree to notice."

Sasuke glared at Naruto in annoyance, "Yes, though not very well. Maybe if I'd had more time to concentrate…"

Naruto snorted in amusement but closed his eyes briefly, "They've moved closer; we should move further east. But not far, there's another group coming."

"Damn…" Sasuke weighed their options. If they kept moving they'd get closer to their destination, but on the very real chance they were attacked again they would be weak, vulnerable. He could tell from a brief look at Sakura that the girl was still woozy, her steps anything but even, and he knew himself to be overtired. His nerves were wire-taunt and, as proved by his almost walking into a tree, his senses weren't up to optimum. They needed rest.

"Naruto, keep a look out for a good place to rest." He said finally, "If we get caught by either one of those groups, I don't think I can get us out again." The confession was grudging, but Naruto nodded without comment and took off into the forest.

While Naruto scouted, Sasuke contented himself with ignoring his throbbing arm and rapidly tiring limbs, and learnt to use his 'new' way of sensing.

It was hard at first, to an extent he almost felt like he was turning his brain inside-out, but it got easier the more he persisted.

Occasionally Naruto checked back, reporting that he hadn't found anywhere even halfway safe yet, or warning about the upcoming terrain, but he quickly figured out that Sasuke was getting a grip on being able to sense the enemy so his trips back became less and less as he searched further afield for a place to lay low.

The sun was dropping rapidly out of the sky when Naruto did come back, his expression set in one of near panic, then sudden confusion as he appeared, as if from thin air, in front of Sasuke and caused the black-haired boy to jump backwards slightly, a kunai raised.

"Naruto?" Sasuke glared at the other boy and forced himself to relax, slipping his kunai back into its pouch.

"Sasuke-kun…is something wrong?" Sakura asked tiredly from a few feet away and Sasuke shook his head.

"Startled." He murmured loud enough for her to hear and finally took in the expression on Naruto's face. "What?"

"Where are they? I swear I felt them here suddenly." Naruto's eyes were darting around, trying to pierce the gathering darkness under the trees.

"Hn. So it worked." Sasuke replied and turned around to face Sakura and Tsukai. "Sit down for a minute." He said and then walked a few feet away where he could talk to Naruto without being overheard.

" _What_ worked?" Naruto demanded, "One minute the nearest group to you was a mile behind you, then suddenly they're on top of you! What the _hell_ happened?"

"Baka." Sasuke rubbed his eyes tiredly and leaned back against a tree, trying to gain as much rest as he could, "I just wanted to see if I could pull off whatever Jutsu those guys are doing. I wasn't sure if it worked though." He paused, "Guess it did."

"Bastard! You could have warned me, I nearly had a heart attack!"

"Thanks for worrying." Sasuke said, amused and Naruto scowled at him.

"So you can do their Jutsu now, can you?" Naruto finally said and glared at Sasuke who was rapidly loosing form, blending into the shadows as the sun dropped lower behind the horizon.

"Yeah." Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree behind him, "But not right now. I'm out of energy; I need sleep. Did you find somewhere?"

"Yeah, we won't be able to stay there long though; a couple of hours at best."

Sasuke sighed and dragged his much protesting eyelids open again, "Let's go then, so we can make the most of our few hours."

A few minutes later had Sasuke, Sakura and Tsukai quickly wending their way through trees that were growing increasingly close together and foliage that seemed obsessed with trying to hinder their movements. Luckily it didn't take them long to reach the spot Naruto had found and the three dropped their packs in exhaustion as soon as they got there then fell to the ground straight after them.

As soon as he had stopped moving, Sasuke found himself fighting a loosing battle against sleep, but he struggled to keep his eyes open anyway. They still needed to set a watch and a quick glance at Sakura and Tsukai revealed that the two had already passed out from weariness.

"I'll keep watch." Naruto's voice was right beside Sasuke's ear but the black-haired boy didn't even twitch at the sudden sound, his body simply too tired to waste it's energy on something as insignificant as being startled.

"What'll you do if we're attacked?" Sasuke's voice was slightly slurred from exhaustion but he ignored it and tried to get to his feet.

"Wake you up." Naruto said firmly and suddenly Sasuke felt a hand grab onto his good arm and yank him back down. "Now be a good boy and go to sleep. You're the only chance these two have so you have too."

Sasuke wanted to argue. He _really_ wanted to argue. But he couldn't sum up the energy to get anything coherent out of his mouth. He settled for making a wordless sound of annoyance that sounded weak and tired, even to his own ears.

Again right next to his ear, Naruto laughed quietly. "Stubborn idiot."

It really was a losing battle, Sasuke reflected as Naruto pushed him over to land with his head on his pack.

"It's not that cold, so you won't freeze to death without a blanket." Naruto said softly and Sasuke thought he might have felt a ghostly fingertip brush over his forehead, "And don't worry about the watch; I promise to wake you if anything happens, and Uzumaki Naruto always keeps his word…"

Sasuke's brain barely even comprehended the words, his eyelids falling closed of their own accord and his body shutting down on him, plunging him into a dreamless black void.

When he woke again the world was still caught in the half-gloom it had been in when he'd fallen asleep and for a confused moment he wondered how he could feel so well rested after only sleeping for a few moments; then his brain came up with a more logical answer. He'd slept all night.

As soon as the thought occurred to him, Sasuke was sitting bolt upright, his arm throbbing at the sudden movement. He looked around.

Sakura and Tsukai were where he'd seen them last, the steady raise and fall of the there chests proclaiming them to still be sleeping soundly. Naruto was nowhere to be seen.

What were they still doing here? Before he'd gone to sleep the night before he had definitely heard Naruto assure him that the blond would wake him, so why hadn't he?

Sasuke closed his eyes briefly, his mind searching the area quickly for enemies, and for Naruto. He found both quickly. Naruto was close by, barely a few meters from the 'camp' and approaching it steadily. The enemy was further off (thankfully), one group was somewhere to the east of them and another to the south.

"How are you feeling?"

Sasuke turned annoyed eyes to Naruto and glared, "It's dawn, why didn't you wake me?" he demanded.

Naruto dropped into a crouch and shrugged, "It was safe enough to stay here and you needed to rest. Even _you_ can't keep up the pace we've been going at with only a few hours sleep here and there. How's your arm?"

"Fine." Sasuke replied curtly and climbed to his feet, moving over to wake Tsukai and Sakura. In truth it was feeling stiff and sore, but his entire body felt like that. Really, all he could do was endure it and wait till the mission was over.

Sakura woke immediately with the touch to her shoulder and sat up to look around alertly as the area they were in lightened. Tsukai was slightly harder to wake, taking a moment of constant shaking to get his attention enough to make him open his eyes.

"It's morning." Sasuke said shortly, explaining the situation, mainly to Sakura, in as few words as possible. "We need to get moving. Get something to eat as we move, as soon as we leave this spot we'll need our wits about us."

Sakura nodded, and covered a small yawn as she and Tsukai followed the orders.

Ignoring Naruto, Sasuke also pulled his pack open and pulled out something to eat, then closed it and slung it up onto his back and quickly began to eat.

Naruto glared at him but as soon as Tsukai and Sakura were on their feet he began to tell Sasuke about the terrain that surrounded them.

It wasn't promising. Ahead of them the forest grew deeper and closer, though they wouldn't have to worry about slogging through miles of undergrowth, since there wasn't enough sunlight or space for it to grow. The forest to the west was likewise impossibly thick, and going back was out of the question. They had only a single choice really. East, back towards the road that was most likely the most heavily guarded area. They didn't have a choice.

"Let's go." Sasuke said after a moment and led the way from their small haven, angling away from where he could feel the groups of searchers moving, hoping to miss the group to the east by moving to the north-east for a while.

Their pace was better as the day brightened around them (as much as it could through the overlapping leaves of the trees above them), much better than it had been when they were so exhausted the night before. They made good time and it wasn't long before Sasuke had to turn them full north to avoid the eastern group that was rapidly growing nearer to them. When they'd left the 'camp' Sasuke had decided to use the enemies own trick against them and he now allowed a small amount of his Chakra to create a nullifying shield around them; though this time he remembered to warn Naruto first.

They managed to keep moving until mid-morning like that but they were soon forced to halt their trek as Naruto and Sasuke once again 'discussed' the terrain and the locations of their pursuers.

"…We _can't_ get around them! They've got us surrounded in front." Naruto stated firmly and Sasuke frowned at him. He wasn't really frowning at the other boy, more at the fact that he was right.

Somehow their enemy had managed to funnel Sasuke and his group into a small space that made it impossible for them to move forward, but Sasuke refused to go back.

"There has to be a way to slip through." He stated, "We can sense them and I can block them from sensing us…"

"They've already figured out that we can sense them." Naruto said, scowling, "They just adjusted they strategy to match that. Going forward is a trap."

"So is going back!" Sasuke growled.

"Damnit!" Naruto slammed his fist at a nearby tree, the punch connecting for a brief moment before passing through and making the boy stagger slightly.

Sasuke sighed and leaned back against the tree behind him. They couldn't go forward, they couldn't go back, and they couldn't stay where they were either. So what could they do?

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke's head snapped up at Naruto's sudden shout and the boy pointed frantically towards the south.

"The bastards have pinned us in!" Naruto exclaimed and Sasuke immediately snapped his senses out and then swore. Naruto was right, while they'd been arguing over the correct course to take another group of the enemy had moved in behind them, effectively boxing them in from all four sides.

"They can sense us." Sasuke stated matter-of-factly, "Or some of them can, or else they wouldn't have been able to do this. We have to get moving."

"What a great idea." Naruto snapped, "But _which way_?"

Sasuke didn't even pause, simply pulled his pack more firmly onto his back, checked his weapons and marched back to where he'd left Sakura and Tsukai. "Every direction is equally as dangerous, so we may as well go straight ahead." He said grimly.

And straight ahead they went, though they didn't get far. Barely five minutes into their cautious travelling, Sasuke stopped them then readjusted their direction to head northeast, hoping to slip between the northern group and the eastern one. Luck didn't seem to be with them though as Naruto, who was watching the eastern group while Sasuke focused on the northern one, reported that a section of the group had broken away and was heading straight for them.

"We'll keep going," Sasuke decided, "and get as far away from the main groups as we can. If we only have to deal with small groups then maybe we can slip passed, the further away we get, the longer it'll take them to get other groups to us."

And so they moved, trying not to run and waste their strength as they attempted to slip between the two main groups and avoid the smaller group at the same time.

The entire time Sasuke decided to keep the nullifying Jutsu active, determined to make it as hard as possible for their enemy to find them as he could and he went back to relying on Naruto for their directions as he worked to conserve his Chakra.

It was just past noon when the smaller group finally caught up to them.

Launching themselves out of the trees at the apparently alone and unprepared black-haired boy, this group was slightly different than the ones Sasuke had encountered before. They didn't seem to travel in pairs as the others had and their clothing was a motley hodgepodge of various things. Obviously they were mercenary's, paid to take down Sasuke so that the leader of whoever was after Tsukai didn't loose anymore of his own ninja's.

Sasuke stood still in the centre of a largish clearing and simply watched, a smirk on his face, as the first of the group came flying at him, brandishing weapons that were as motley as their wielders clothing.

A few of them seemed to have enough brains not to trust in the appearance of a smirking, undefended kid standing calmly facing his certain death and those bright ones who suddenly chose to hang back were saved a quick trip to the 'other-side' as all around the parameter of the clearing explosions threw short rains of dirt and dead branches into the air as the first to leave the trees triggered the Explosion Notes that Sakura had carefully set earlier.

There was sudden silence in the forest as those who hadn't been caught in the explosions stopped and reassessed their target. Sasuke simply let his smirk widen and with taunting slowness he drew two Kunai from his belt-pouch and took one in each hand, then moved into a very clear battle stance and waited.

In the end Sasuke and his group had run. Ahead of them, Naruto had found a place where even Sakura on her own could easily defend Tsukai for a while and they had decided to make for it and hopefully get rid of the smaller group that was on their trail. Running hadn't taken much of their stamina and had given them the time they needed to hide Tsukai and Sakura and to set up the area with small traps, like the Explosion Notes.

Sasuke had hoped to take out more of their pursuers with that trick, but he couldn't help but be satisfied with the amount that had been eliminated. Any cutting down of the numbers was a bonus.

"I wish we hadn't had to do that." Naruto said, his voice slightly void of emotion from where he stood beside Sasuke.

Sasuke turned his head slightly to look out of the corner of his eyes at the boy as he waited for the dirt-rain to finish falling. No, Naruto never had liked the idea of having to kill, or of having to win a fight through tricks; but even he understood that in this situation they didn't have a choice.

"They knew what they were in for when they came after us." Sasuke murmured, an attempt at assuaging his own guilt as well as Naruto's.

Naruto stayed silent, his gaze turning to look behind Sasuke, guarding his back as the dirt and dust finally settled, and Sasuke drew his weapons and made himself ready. They hadn't been able to set many other traps and Sasuke hoped that he and Naruto would be enough to eliminate the group that was still left without having to resort to using them.

When a closer assessment of the youth standing boldly in the centre of the clearing revealed that he was still just as alone now as he had been earlier one or two of the men began to inch forward, their eyes now on the lookout for further tricks as they moved forward.

Sasuke remained still, his smirk in place as he watched their nervous looks, then his smirk grew wider as, apparently finding everything to his satisfaction, or simply growing impatient, someone attempted to rush Sasuke from behind. The black-haired boy didn't even turn around and to the complete bemusement of everyone watching the rushing man was suddenly halted in his tracks and thrown backwards to slam into a tree and slide to the ground unconscious.

There was another long silence in which Sasuke met the eyes of every man he could see and then, very deliberately, activated his Sharingan and launched himself into an attack.

It only took Sasuke a few seconds to get to the edge of the clearing and he was pleased to note that in that few seconds a couple of the men who had watched him activate his Sharingan had lost their nerve and fled, some even discarding their weapons in their rush to get away from the apparent demon flinging itself at them.

Unfortunately many more of the men simply tightened their grips on their weapons and soon Sasuke's rush was stopped in a clash of steel and a growl as his first opponent leapt to meet him.

"…Little brat!" the man made a kick for Sasuke's stomach, forcing the boy to leap backwards, then followed him quickly, his weapon, a sword, held firmly in two hands as he attacked. Sasuke ignored him, leaving the man to Naruto's expert care. Instead he leapt back further, dodging a thrown weapon then dived to the right and leapt up into a tree taking out the would-be marksman with a quick blow to the side of the head, then he dropped back out of the tree his kunai leading the way as he landed on top of another man, also taking him out with a well placed hit.

So far so good.

Screams back near the clearing prompted Sasuke to head back in that direction and he was greeted by the peculiar sight of men, eyes wide in fright, flailing about with their weapons, taking out many of their own people as they sort to protect themselves from an apparently invisible menace. In the middle of it all, Naruto was grinning fiercely and threading his way through the group, knocking out fighters as opportunities presented themselves.

Sasuke only had a moment to examine the scene. He felt the movement of the weapon through the air more than he sensed the attack itself and narrowly avoided getting a Shirukin through the neck by ducking quickly and rolling behind a tree. That created its own problems however as his expert reflexes landed him next to a man wielding an axe who had been hiding in ambush.

Sasuke and the man simply stared at each other for a moment, then both dived away from the shelter of the tree, weapons up in defence, sure the other was going to attack. When the man figured out that Sasuke wasn't going to attack he paused, but Sasuke kept on moving, running straight into the foliage and disappearing as the Shiruken thrower from earlier hurled another deadly volley at the space where Sasuke had been and hit the axe-man instead.

There were to many of them Sasuke realised as he paused, his back up against a tree trunk and he sensed the air around him. No matter where he went there were people ready to kill him. Normally he would consider the forest his optimal place to fight; he'd been raised in Konoha and trained in the forests surrounding it, but just as it created places for Sasuke to hide, manoeuvre and attack from, it also created those opportunities for his opponents and there was a far greater number of them than there was of him.

His other option was to go back to the clearing, there he'd have Naruto to safely watch his back and he'd be able to _see_ just about every attack made on him; if his enemy wanted to attack, they would have to come out of hiding; but then he took the risk of being overwhelmed from all sides. Also he'd have nothing to shield himself with in case of distance attacks, he wouldn't be able to stop to think of new tactics, he'd only have time to fight.

Carefully, Sasuke slipped himself out from behind his tree and caught of glimpse of the now near empty clearing. Naruto was dealing with a last few men, but the rest had fled into the forest and were either were still running or had gone into hiding. Other than that the forest was silent.

The only way to draw their enemy out and eliminate them before reinforcements arrived was to make himself a target. Sasuke winced at the poor strategy of it all even as he made his move, running out into the clearing to help Naruto dispatch the last of the braver men who had attacked.

"Are you hurt?" Was Naruto's immediate demand as Sasuke appeared beside him and Sasuke shook his head quickly. He'd yet to take any new wounds and he was careful not to show how much his left arm was paining him.

"If we want to get this over quickly, we need to draw them out." Sasuke said as he rapped a few of the unconscious men on the head again to 'make sure' of them, then pushed them out of the way, his eyes scanning the trees as he moved. "They're to well hidden in the trees."

"They could try to overwhelm us with numbers." Naruto pointed out.

Sasuke stopped scanning the forest long enough to smirk at him, "Have we _ever_ been overwhelmed?"

Naruto grinned, "Uzumaki Naruto doesn't _get_ overwhelmed!" the blond stated loudly.

"Heh. Here they come."

Sasuke lowered himself into a crouch as men began to filter out of the trees, the boys apparently nonchalant clearing of space being too much of a temptation to ignore.

Transferring his second kunai to his left hand, Sasuke dived his hand quickly into his leg holster and took out the first three men coming at him with some well thrown Shiruken, then he moved the blade back and met the next in line with a lightning quick dodge and expert stab in the side that had him down in seconds.

Behind him he could hear the sounds of men in pain as the attackers hoping to catch Sasuke from behind met the same fate as the first who had tried such an attack. He could see fear in the eyes of the men who came at him boldly, from the front. Their attacks were distracted as their eyes flickered uncertainly to the sight of men apparently hurling themselves in various directions then back in time to meet the gaze of the boy with eyes the shade of blood.

Still, _still_ there were to many. Even with those that were defeated, those that had fled and those that hung back with the fear of demons put into them, there were still to many of them. Sasuke sported many shallow, unavoidable, wounds now that, while they weren't anywhere near deadly or debilitating, were proof that the two boys probably wouldn't able to hold out. Not unless they did something to change the tides.

It was about now that Sasuke would have relied on Naruto's Kage buushin no jutsu; it would have turned the tide. But it wasn't an option. That left him with one other.

Sacrificing the weapons he held, Sasuke hurled them ahead of him, catching the next two men running at him in the neck and gut respectively. At the hits the two men pitched backwards slamming into the ones running behind them, making them fall in a tangle of blood and limbs. Sasuke didn't even pause to make sure they were down. Quickly he brought his hands up before him and preformed some of the first seals he'd ever learnt.

"Kanton!" Sasuke finished the final seal and looked up at the approaching enemy as he lifted his left hand to his mouth, "Goukakyu no Jutsu!"

"What the _hell_?" Sasuke paid Naruto's exclamation no mind as he gently breathed Chakra through his circled thumb and forefinger.

Instantly a roaring wave of flame rolled out over the men that had been running at him so quickly. Pushing more Chakra into the Jutsu, Sasuke spun himself around in a full circle, singeing the grass around him along with any not fast enough to get out of the way.

When he finally reached the position he'd been in when he began the move, Sasuke ended the Jutsu and evaluated the situation. He'd hit quite a few of the men that had been coming from the trees and many of them had stupidly run into the forest searching for water, while others had simply hurled themselves to the ground, struggling to put the flames out by rolling and smothering them.

Those who hadn't been caught were once again keeping a safe distance.

"You almost _hit_ me with that, asshole!"

Sasuke couldn't help a short laugh as he pulled two more Kunai from his belt pouch and watched their enemy carefully, "Would it have mattered if I did?"

Naruto seethed, "It's the _principal_ of the thing, damn you!"

Sasuke laughed again, a low chuckle as he ducked quickly to catch a Kunai, complete with Explosion Note attached, that had been thrown at him and hurl it back before it could detonate. "Don't worry, I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

"Hmph!"

The exploding kunai hit a tree and the people around it scattered as it did what it was supposed to and blasted the tree to splinters, forcing Sasuke drop to one knee and lift his arms to guard against any stray woodchips and branches.

It was in that brief moment of vulnerability that a shadow fell over him and he felt a presence standing directly in front of him. His hands tightened on his weapons and he tensed himself for attack.

" _Kakashi-sensei!_ "

Sasuke's head snapped up at Naruto's shout and he stared at the man standing over him.

The man stood, one hand in his pocket and the other held up in greeting, his single visible eye turned upwards in a smile.

"Yo."

"Ka…Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke blinked in shock then his head turned to the side as Naruto started yelling.

"… _Hey!_ Those are _our_ bad guys! What do you think you're doing? We could take them! Damnit! Shikamaru? Go find your own fight! _Argh!_ "

Everywhere Sasuke looked there seemed to be leaf-nin's appearing, chasing the rapidly dwindling group of mercenary's out of hiding and fighting them where necessary.

Sasuke turned his uncomprehending gaze back to where Kakashi was still standing over him and let his battle senses fade even as they tested the aura before him and confirmed that yes, this was Hatake Kakashi.

"Why are you here?"

From what Sasuke could see of his teachers expression the man seemed to be looking him over for injury's, "I think it would be better to explain when Tsukai and Sakura are around too." He paused, "I gather they're hiding somewhere and you haven't simply lost them."

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke watched Naruto suddenly stand up straight and point an accusing finger in Kakashi's direction, "Bastard-sensei! Why are you stealing our fight!"

Sasuke ignored him, "Hiding." He confirmed.

"Are you injured? Tsunande-sama insisted we bring a healer-nin."

Sasuke shook his head and pulled himself to his feet, finally allowing his muscles to relax and put his kunai away. "Nothing that can't wait."

"Bastard!" Naruto left off his loud ranting over the fight-theft to pin Sasuke with an accusing glare, "Make them look at your arm!"

Kakashi nodded slightly to Sasuke then looked around and gestured for Shikamaru to take over, "We need to talk to Sakura and Tsukai quickly." Kakashi said, his voice unusually serious. A tone that made even Naruto stop talking.

Sasuke paused for a moment then nodded and led the way from the clearing, heading for the narrow cave where he'd left the rest of his group. It took them a few minutes to get there but when they did Sakura bounded out immediately, obviously having been keeping a discreet watch.

"Sasuke-kun! Are you alright?" She paused suddenly, "…Kakashi-sensei?"

"Sakura." Kakashi's eyes moved over Sakura quickly and then moved to the older man stepping out of the cave behind her. "Tsukai-san."

"Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura looked over at Sasuke uncertainly then back again, "Why are you here?"

"Rescuing you, of course." Kakashi smiled, but his eyes fell on Sasuke briefly before he looked back at the girl.

"…Rescuing?"

"The day after you and Sasuke left an urgent message arrived for Tsukai warning him of added danger to his trip home." Kakashi made himself comfortable leaning against a nearby tree and put his hands in his pockets, "We were advised to up the mission to A, or S class and a warning of a certain type of Jutsu was given. The Fifth decided the best course was to send two teams to support you; we've been tracking you for a few days, but couldn't get to you directly till now."

"Oh…" Sakura absorbed the knowledge, "But why are you here, Sensei? Didn't you have a mission?"

"I did." Kakashi's expression grew grave again, "But it was given to another and I was asked specifically to come retrieve the two of you." He paused slightly to look at Tsukai then went on, "There have been some complications, with Naruto."

" _What_?" Naruto had been glaring at Kakashi from Sasuke's side, but suddenly he exploded forward towards the older man, "What's wrong with me? What complications? What?"

Sasuke's eyes had widened but he'd managed to restrain himself from any kind of outburst except for an echoing of Naruto's overly loud question. " _What_?"

Kakashi lifted a hand and rubbed at the side of his cloth covered nose, "I'm not sure exactly. After you left it seemed like his energy began to leak out of him, at the rate he was going even the fifth wasn't sure if he could survive it. By now…"

The man trailed off as his two students, or rather _three_ students, stared at him in shock.

"Since we left…" Sasuke said his eyes moving to where Naruto was standing deadly still, "Since _we_ left… _We have to go back_!"

He was suddenly aware of everyone's eyes on him but he ignored them, rushing into the cave quickly to grab his pack and slinging it onto his back as he came running back out again. If Naruto's energy drain had been happening since _they_ left, then it had been happening since _Naruto_ left, getting Naruto back as quickly as possible would stop it.

Sasuke pinned his eyes to Kakashi as he cleared the entrance of the cave, " _Now_!" he insisted and Kakashi nodded, once.

"Sakura…"

"No!" the word came out sharper than he intended but he ignored it, "We have to move quickly, as quickly as possible. Sakura, stay with Tsukai-san and complete the mission."

"But…"

Sasuke ignored Sakura's protest and began to move through the trees quickly.

"Ahh… Hatake-san! Please, before you go; a word!" Sasuke stopped walking and glared back at Tsukai who had rushed forward quickly. "It'll only take a minute." Tsukai assured Sasuke and pulled Kakashi off to the side to speak to him lowly.

Sasuke chaffed at the delay but held his peace for the moment.

"S…Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned his head to the side and looked at Naruto who was white as the proverbial sheet.

"Sasuke why…?"

"If it only started happening since we left then it's because you left your body." Sasuke said shortly, "Because you followed me, baka!"

Colour flooded back into Naruto features in an instant, "Damnit! I had to follow you, you weren't listening to me and…and you can _see_ me!"

Sasuke scowled at a nearby tree, "I know…"

"Well I know why I have to go back, but why are _you_?" Naruto demanded.

" _Baka_!" Sasuke snapped his gaze back to Naruto, "Who knows if simply getting you _near_ your body will help? You need to get back _into_ it and I'm the only one who can figure out how to reverse that Jutsu, I'm the only one with enough information!"

Naruto was silent for a minute, mulling Sasuke's answer over. "What…what if…"

"We'll get there in time." Sasuke stated firmly and went back to glaring at the nearby tree.

"Yeah…" Naruto's voice was a little shaky but gained confidence as he spoke, "Yeah, we will! No stupid Jutsu can keep down the great Uzumaki Naruto, we'll get there and show it _just_ who's strongest!"

Sasuke's mouth tightened slightly and he glared over at Kakashi who had finally finished his conversation with Tsukai and was making his way over.

"Let's go." Kakashi said and Sasuke nodded, taking to the treetops as a faster mode of travel aiming himself at the road. Keeping himself concealed against attacks would be easier now he didn't have Tsukai and Sakura with him so they could afford to head straight for the easiest path of travel and luckily Kakashi let him lead without protest, settling for following close behind and keeping to his own thoughts.

The first stage of their rushed travelling was silent as the sun slowly moved from it's noon position and crept its way across the sky towards evening. The silence was broken briefly when Kakashi suggested stopping for rest, but Sasuke refused, determined to reach the road before he rested.

It was near too, maybe even after, midnight by the time they managed that and Sasuke silently thanked Naruto for making him sleep so long the night before. Kakashi stopped them before they reached the road and settled his self comfortably on a tree branch to rest.

"Sleep." He ordered, "We don't move again until sunrise."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched but he remained silent and followed the orders, he wouldn't be able to figure out the Jutsu, and its reversal, if he was too tired to think straight.

Following Kakashi's example, Sasuke found himself a relatively sturdy branch and made himself comfortable on it and a moment later Naruto joined him, watching him until Sasuke finally opened his eyes and glared at him, "What?"

"We probably won't have any trouble on the road." Naruto said, "Shikamaru started moving a few hours ago and all the groups after Tsukai went after them."

"Hn." Sasuke made the sound dismissively and closed his eyes again…then opened them to keep glaring at Naruto. " _What?_ "

Naruto fidgeted slightly then shook his head, turning away. "Nothing. Get some rest."

"Hn." Sasuke closed his eyes. It was hard to go to sleep though, when he could feel Naruto's oddly electric aura so close and heavy he almost felt like he was drowning, or suffocating. Sasuke's lips tightened slightly and he tucked his hands under his arms to keep them warm.

"Don't worry, Naruto." Sasuke said softly, his eyes still closed, "We'll start working on the Jutsu while we move tomorrow so we know what we're doing when we get there. You're to strong and stubborn to give in, so everything will be fine."

"Yeah…" The heaviness around him lifted slightly. "That's exactly right. Strong and stubborn, that's me."

Sasuke snorted in amusement then let his mind go blank, settling it for sleep. Naruto didn't have to worry. They would get there in time; even if he had to run without rest for the next few days he would get there in time. Nothing would stop him.

They were on the move again before the sun had even contemplated rising. By the time it _had_ poked its head above the horizon, Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto had covered more ground then Sasuke's group had the previous day entirely and Sasuke was determined that they weren't going to stop until night short of Kakashi tackling him to the ground and tying him to a tree.

Luck wasn't with him though and they ended up stopping around midmorning.

"Why are we stopping?" Sasuke demanded the instant he got close enough to Kakashi for the man to hear him.

"I want to scout around a bit." Kakashi's expression brooked no argument, "Stay here."

"But…" The frustrated protest fell on deaf ears as Kakashi quickly disappeared into the foliage and Sasuke had to settle for glaring at the greenery where the man had been.

Scouting, they couldn't afford the time it would take to scout. Intellectually, he knew it had to be done. They couldn't be completely sure they weren't being followed, or that they weren't heading straight into a trap.

But every second they were standing still was a second they should be using to get closer to Naruto, and it wasn't just his own anxiousness that said that. Since they had awakened in the dark hours of the early morning Sasuke had been able to hear Naruto, never more than a step or two behind him, muttering to himself. Sasuke wasn't completely sure what the blond was trying to do, but he figured it had something to do with attempting to sense his body all the miles away back in Konoha. From the increasingly colourful tone to his language though, Sasuke was sure the blonde wasn't succeeding.

"Have you figured out anything about that Jutsu yet?" Naruto demanded abruptly and Sasuke started, turning to look at the boy.

"Not yet." Though not from lack of trying. He'd spent their entire trip that morning analysing what he knew of the Jutsu and only small pieces of it seemed to fit; the signs Naruto had shown him were to inexact for him to figure it out easily.

"What do you mean 'not yet'?" Naruto said vehemently, "I thought you said you could figure the damned Jutsu out before we got back!"

"I'm _working_ on it, Naruto." Sasuke bit back and found himself locked into a glaring competition with the other boy that was making his eyes water as Naruto's form kept wavering in and out of solid vision.

"Well work _faster_! What the hell am I going to do if we get back and we can't _do_ anything?"

"I said I'd figure it out and I _will_!"

"Oh sure you will, because you're Mister _Perfect_ and Mister Perfect _always_ figures things out, right?"

Sasuke bit back his first retort, and his second. And then for good measure his third. Gritting his teeth he forcibly reminded himself, it wasn't Naruto's fault. Regardless of what either of them said it didn't stop the fact that Naruto's physical body was miles away, dying inch-by-inch and that they had no way of knowing what kind of condition he was in until they actually got there. Naruto couldn't be blamed for lashing out in the only direction it was possible for him to.

Sasuke broke the staring contest and put a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes.

"Naruto…I'm _trying_. I _will_ figure it out before we get there and not because I'm…I'm _perfect_. We both know I'm not. I'll figure it out because I _have_ too; I won't let anything happen to you."

"So you _say_!"

That did it.

"Damn it, Naruto!" Sasuke's hand lashed out and slammed into the trunk of the tree behind them, rushing passed Naruto's head and causing the boy to automatically flinch away heedless of whether the punch would actually hit him or not. Sasuke glared at Naruto from barely an inch away from his face and struggled to keep his eyes on the boy that was a lot more see-through close up, "Do you honestly think I would let anything happen to you?" he said forcefully, "After all this time? After all the missions we've completed together?"

Naruto looked away, scowling. "We're not on a mission now, I'm not that important. Besides," Naruto looked back at Sasuke, a bitter smile twisting his lips, "you'd probably be happy if I died. I'm the most annoying of your rivals, right? If I were gone you could concentrate on training to fight people a bit more worthy of your notice."

" _Baka_." Sasuke's eyes flashed red with the Sharingan as he gave up on attempting to pick out Naruto's fuzzy form and the boy swam into solidity immediately. He caught Naruto's eyes with his own, and held them. "I would _not_ be happy if you died. I…" he grit his teeth together and tried not to growl. Why did Naruto always have to make things so difficult? They'd been teamed together for _four years_. They had fought everything from missing-nin's and A-class criminals to summoned creatures and demons, but in spite of it all Naruto _still_ acted as if they were twelve years old, fighting over who had the stronger Jutsu's or who would defeat which foe.

He should have _known_ by now that Sasuke would far sooner chop of his own arm than allow Naruto to get hurt. It made him angry that Naruto hadn't noticed, but what was making him angrier was that because the idiot had failed to see these things Sasuke was having to tell him. Aloud.

"I…" Sasuke tried again then shook his head, "It doesn't matter if this is a mission or not, if you're annoying or not, or if you think you're worthy to be my rival or not. What matters is that it's _you_. _You're_ in trouble, you need my help and there's _no way_ I'd let you die. Nothing Naruto, _nothing_ will stop me from figuring out how to reverse the Jutsu used on you; no matter what, I won't let anything stop me from bringing you back."

"…Sasuke." Naruto suddenly looked like he was about to burst into tears and Sasuke turned away hastily, taking a few steps and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"You won't die, okay? So could we just concentrate on figuring out this Jutsu and getting back to Konoha, instead of fighting pointlessly."

"S…sure." Naruto's voice wavered slightly, "I…I really thought…thought that…" He paused. "Sasuke, th…thanks."

Sasuke let the Sharingan deactivate and fixed his gaze on a patch of grass, "Hn. Baka."

The next few moments passed in a comfortable silence and was only broken by a slight rustle of leaves signalling Kakashi's return.

"Ready to go?" the man inquired lightly and Sasuke nailed him with a fierce glare.

"Find anything?" he asked in annoyance as they began to move again.

Kakashi lifted an eyebrow in amusement, "A trail here and there, nothing in the last twenty-four hours though."

"Hn."

"Do you think he _really_ went scouting?" Naruto said from where he ran behind Sasuke, his tone heavy with sarcasm. "I bet he made us stop just to irritate us."

Sasuke snorted and kept his voice low, "He's worried too. If he weren't then we would have stopped to check the area a lot more often; he's doing the minimum required to get us as much speed as possible…" Sasuke's voice took on a tone of aggravation, "Though he is being annoying about it."

"It's because he's a pervert." Naruto said firmly, "In my experience all perverts are annoying. Just look at the Ero-sennin, or that closet pervert, Ebisu-sensei. _Proof_ , all three of them."

Sasuke snorted and shook his head. You could always tell Naruto was feeling better when he started complaining about how all the teachers he'd had since he left the academy were perverts.

Sasuke let the inane chatter wash over him, paying only half a mind to it as he jumped from tree branch-to-tree branch and put his mind back to the more important problem of the Jutsu.

It was nighttime and again Kakashi had stopped them for a few hours rest.

The day hadn't given much in the way of answers to Sasuke and had served only to give him questions, or rather, worries. During the seven days of their mission, Naruto had grown more and more solid as they had progressed, or at least he had at first. Sasuke hadn't actually been paying attention since it hadn't been an issue, but now that he thought about it, Naruto had been slowly loosing his solidity since day five. And it had only gotten worse on day six, when the boy had figured out how to touch solid objects. It had been close to an epiphany when he'd made that particular connection and Sasuke had come very close to plummeting almost fifty-feet to the ground as he lost his footing on the branch he'd been aiming for. Once he'd regained his footing though, he'd had a very forceful talk with the blonde telling him _not_ to do it anymore; unless he wanted to kill himself faster.

The question remained of how much damage he'd done though, and the fact that Naruto's form was steadily growing less solid each hour wasn't helping matters any. In fact, after mid-afternoon when Naruto had disappeared completely for a while, Sasuke had taken to keeping his Sharingan active so that he could keep an eye on the other boy. He probably couldn't afford the energy drain, but he refused to let Naruto out of his sight.

"Go to sleep, asshole."

Naruto's voice startled Sasuke out of his thoughts and he snapped his head around to look at the fuzzy image sitting beside him.

"We'll probably get to the village tomorrow night, right? So this is your last chance to rest."

"Thinking." Sasuke answered shortly and resisted the urge to turn his Sharingan back on so he could see Naruto clearly.

"You can think tomorrow, you'll have all day."

"Hn." Sasuke lifted an eyebrow, "Make up your mind, Naruto. This morning you were yelling at me to figure out how to help you, and now you want me to stop."

Naruto was silent for a moment, "Yeah. But I don't want anything to happen to you just because you were trying to help me." He paused then went on with a bit more bravado, "I mean, it would suck if you fell arse-over-kite out of a tree tomorrow and broke your stupid neck just 'cause you didn't get enough sleep."

Sasuke snorted, "That's something _you'd_ do, _dobe_."

"Don't _call_ me that, asshole. Gee, I try to show a little concern and you start calling me names. Great friend _you_ are."

Sasuke turned his head away slightly; obscuring a smile he couldn't quite hold back. "Don't worry about me, _baka_. You should be worrying about yourself."

"Mmm, I know." Naruto's answer came out softly, "But I can't help it. You're such an asshole, always thinking yourself so high and mighty and better than everyone else; you're always running headlong into fights and things without considering anyone but yourself and how am I supposed to help you when you fall on your royally appointed ass when I'm nothing but a misplaced piece of Chakra?" Naruto's voice got more heated, "I mean, if you drop your ass out of a tree tomorrow then I can't even catch you since I'm probably going to suck the last of my energy out of my body and kill myself, and you know _what_? I wouldn't even think of that if you _did_ fall, because I'd do it anyway so you don't get hurt."

"Hn. I won't fall out of a tree." Sasuke said.

"But if you _did_ -"

"I _won't_ fall out of any trees." Sasuke said again, forcefully, "And if I find myself in danger of doing so, I'll walk on the ground, okay?"

"But…"

" _Baka_. You worry to much about unnecessary things."

Naruto snorted, "It's never _once_ been unnecessary to worry about you. You _always_ need my help."

"I think you've got that backwards, _dobe_."

"…Sometimes, maybe. But…we always save each other, right? That's the way we work."

Sasuke made a grudging sound of agreement, "That's the way we work."

"So, even if I died doing it, I wouldn't be able to stop myself; I'd still try and grab you if you fell out of a tree."

"…Then I'll be extra careful not to fall out of one."

"Promise me."

Sasuke looked sidelong at Naruto and meet the completely serious expression being directed at him with one of his own, "I _promise_."

The smile Naruto suddenly directed at him was radiant and Sasuke sighed, leaning his head back against the tree behind him and closing his eyes.

"I'm going to sleep now, _dobe_."

"Good!" A pause, "And don't call me that!"

Sasuke didn't let them wait for dawn this time. Waking a few hours before that, he let Kakashi know he was up then pointedly started travelling again. A moment later the older man was with him, sparing Sasuke only an amused look before taking point.

They travelled by ground today, the trees near the road having thinned down to the point where trying to use their branches as a road would only be a hazard. They stayed a safe distance from the road, yet remained close enough to it that they could still see it to follow it's path.

Up ahead of him, Kakashi was remarkably alert, trying to make up for not being able to scout much; Naruto was behind him being quiet in a way that was beginning to unnerve Sasuke completely.

They would arrive at the Village today; since they'd started out earlier than expected he hoped to get there before sundown.

He'd made progress on Naruto's Jutsu yesterday, finally; though it was only slight. He'd rearranged a few of the hand movements, using what he knew of Ino's Shintenshin, and it was beginning to make a great deal more sense.

As they moved through the trees, Sasuke bent his mind back to the problem. The sun came up eventually and he was annoyed to notice that above them the sky was becoming overcast and large, heavy looking clouds were heading straight for them. The last thing they needed was rain to slow them down, though it looked like they didn't have much of a choice in the matter, they could only endure it.

The clouds, along with nothing short of a complete downpour, reached them around midmorning and they found their visibility cut down drastically. Sasuke's hair and clothing was plastered to him like an annoying second skin, making it hard for him to move freely and he was coming distinctly aware of the fact that Naruto's eyes were now almost burning a hole through the back of his head.

The blond had been watching Sasuke all morning, but as they'd progressed his looks had become more anxious and to a point resigned, as they moved. Sasuke couldn't say anything to him, the Jutsu was still a useless jumble in his mind that he couldn't seem to completely untangle and despite the rain that was slowing them down considerably he was beginning to get the feeling he might not be able to figure it out before they reached Konoha, not on his own.

The thought of asking Kakashi for help had passed through his mind a couple of times, but Sasuke silently bulked at the idea, the mere thought of trying to explain about Naruto, as if he were a loon, sitting ill with him. But then if he couldn't figure it out himself, most likely his only other choice was to present the entire thing to the Hokage and let _her_ try and unravel it.

But that was a worst-case scenario. Sasuke was determined; he'd promised Naruto that he'd figure out the Jutsu himself and he wasn't going to rely on a 'maybe' that it wouldn't be needed the instant that they arrived home. Naruto was getting to the point where he was fuzzy around the edges, even when Sasuke had his Sharingan active, and that, if anything, spurred the black haired boy to work harder in his task. He wouldn't let Naruto fade out completely; wouldn't let him die from energy loss because Sasuke couldn't figure out the key to the Justu that had sealed him. He wouldn't let Naruto leave him.

"Sasuke! Watch out!"

Sasuke pulled himself from his thoughts in time to come to an abrupt stop, sliding for a distance on the muddy ground before hurling himself behind a tree to avoid the missile he'd barely seen coming at him out of the rain.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke looked quickly at Naruto standing beside him anxiously, then went back to readjusting his thoughts towards the ambush.

He could sense Kakashi somewhere to his left, the man having leapt into a tree the moment he'd noticed the attack. Sasuke couldn't sense anything around him other than Kakashi, which meant that it was more of the nin's who used the Chakra invisibility Jutsu.

Sasuke bit back a curse and closed his eyes so he could concentrate on changing the way he sensed things.

"I didn't sense them." Sasuke realised after a moment that Naruto was babbling at him, "I thought they would have all gone after Shikamaru and you said I shouldn't use my Chakra anymore so I stopped checking the area; I could have got you killed. I…"

"Quiet!" Sasuke snapped and opened his eyes, "It's fine, _don't_ try and sense them, I can do it myself. Just stay out of the way and don't try and help."  
He could sense the fighters around him now, there were only ten, barely enough to keep he and Kakashi entertained; but in this rain, and considering they were in a hurry, it could be a problem.

"I don't need to try and sense them, not when they're on top of us." Naruto said, slightly peevishly, "But…"

"Stay _here_." Sasuke ordered firmly, then quickly dropped his pack and dodged out from behind his tree, finding another to shelter behind almost immediately.

A kunai lodged itself into the new tree as he arrived there and his eyebrow twitched. How could they see well enough to spot him in this weather?

Judging from the positions he could sense the enemy in, they were in pairs again. He focused on the direction the kunai had flown from and sensed two chakras near enough that they were _probably_ the ones throwing them. He had no choice but to take them out first.

Sasuke tensed his muscles then snapped his head to the right as he felt Kakashi's Chakra move abruptly then snuff out. He frowned. He was glad for the help, but it was going to be difficult to move around when the other man was hiding his Chakra. Hopefully they wouldn't injure each other by accident.

Sasuke took a breath and then threw himself out from behind his tree, diving to the left for the next tree along his line to avoid the set of Shurukin that planted themselves in the ground where he'd been standing and then ran for the next, and the next after that; slowly making his way closer and closer to the road as he moved. When he finally got himself in sight of the road he put his back against the trunk of the tree he was behind and quickly raked his soaking fringe out of his eyes. Somewhere in his dodge through the trees his opponents had managed to lose sight of him. Leaning out slightly, Sasuke peered around the side of his covering tree carefully and saw the enemy instantly. They were standing in plain sight in the centre of the road, balancing throwing weapons in their hands as they carefully scrutinized the trees around them. Sasuke pulled back behind his tree and thought quickly. Were they acting as lures? Or was it just easier for them to see, and throw from the open space? Perhaps both.

His breath was coming out in visible clouds of vapour and he focused on changing his breathing to match the conditions as he weighed his options. If he left them, he'd have to watch himself for stray missiles, but if he attacked he might be walking into a trap. And what was Kakashi doing? One set of the double Chakra's had disappeared already, so Sasuke knew Kakashi was being productive, just not where.

He slowly chewed on his lower lip as he thought then sighed and pulled a kunai into his left hand and a Shurukin into the right one. He didn't have time to do anything elaborate, and the conditions and location limited his choice of attack methods. He couldn't use the trees anymore, since they were to thin and by now too wet, so he only had one choice; a straightforward attack.

Minding his footing on the perilous ground, Sasuke jumped from his hiding place, letting loose the Shrukien as he moved and pulling a second Kunai from his leg holster in the same movement.

The two men in the road dodged quickly, avoiding the thrown weapon, and jumped towards Sasuke instantly.

Immediately behind him he sensed two other Chakras move and he cursed, dodging under the swung punch of the first opponent to reach him and then countering with a swift kick to the shin.

The man leapt back from the counter and the second man took his place, drawing a blade from his waist and attacking Sasuke in one smooth, practised movement.

Sasuke barely even had time to breath as he fought the combination of the two men. They were used to fighting together, obviously, and Sasuke was very suddenly aware that this was not a mass attack of inexperienced Mercenary's, or a closed attack where he could take them by surprise, picking them off amongst the trees before they even knew he was there.

The muddy road was working against him as he fought, but it was only that that saved him from having his right hand sliced from his arm as the blade-nin came at him from his blind side and his feet went out from under him, dropping him onto his back.

His opponents looked as surprised as he was when he fell and Sasuke used it to his advantage, kicking the blade from its wielders hand then kicking him in the groin. Sasuke winced at the sound the man made even as he rolled quickly, coming back to his feet behind the second man and knocking him about the head as hard as he could, knocking him over. He paused only to knock the two men out, before he made a beeline for the trees, hiding himself just as the two others he'd felt before made it to their friends rescue, slightly too late.

He'd lost one of his Kunai in the short fight, and had taken a blow to his left arm that had almost made him pass out as it had produced screaming pain from the wound there.

Putting his back against another tree, Sasuke closed his eyes to block out the pain from his arm and worked on sensing the locations of the people around him. He barely even registered that the rain had finally let up and the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds. There were three men left and even as Sasuke regained his breath he felt Kakashi's Chakra appear near the two men now on the road.

Kakashi had been able to work so well, even in all the rain? Somehow, that irritated him a lot.

He didn't have time to dwell on it though. The last man was approaching him quickly, and Sasuke tightened his hand around his kunai before jumping to meet him.

The man was just as wet and muddy as Sasuke now was, but he could make out that the clothes the man wore had been black.

The man aimed straight at Sasuke as soon as he saw him and Sasuke dodged under the first swing, taking a light kick in the side as he spun out of the way.

Sinking his hand into his belt pouch, Sasuke grabbed a hold of one of his last Kunai and, sliding only slighting on the treacherous ground, leapt to attack and scored a cut on the mans shoulder before he slid out of the way.

They both paused to stare at each other, assessing the others possible skills and ability to move around easily given the situation. It was Sasuke who moved first, narrowing his eyes and leaping forward, his kunai crossed in front of him, leading the way.

His opponent dodged left and Sasuke spun in midair, landing close enough to slice the man's arm a second time. Dodging backwards slightly, Sasuke missed being hit with the retaliative blow directed at his face and went down low, kicking the man's feet out from under him.

Changing his grip on the Kunai in his right hand, Sasuke stabbed it downwards but the man rolled quickly, smirking at Sasuke suddenly as he got his feet under him.

"Too bad, kid." The man's voice came out low and then suddenly he disappeared.

Sasuke barely had time to register the signs of the disappearing Jutsu, it happened so quickly.

He didn't even get to take a breath. The feeling of another chakra, one that hadn't been using the Chakra invisibility Jutsu to mask it, appeared behind him at the same time as he heard Naruto yelling defiantly.

He spun quickly, instantly coming nose-to-nose with another man in black, one he recognised from their first encounter with the nin's that could hide their Chakra. His eyes widened in recognition even as the man's fingers moved, forming seals that he didn't recognise but somehow felt ominous as his Sharingan automatically began to analyse them.

And behind him was Naruto. The blond looked furious and he was moving towards Sasuke and his attacker purposefully; getting ready to attack.

Sasuke didn't think, couldn't think. His mind focused on the fact that Naruto was about to throw away what could be the last of his energy to stop Sasuke getting hit by whatever jutsu was about to be thrown at him and his body moved on it's own, doing the first thing that came to his mind, the one thing it had been so focused on for days.

Hands coming up before him, Sasuke quickly formed the seals he'd been attempting to un-jumble barely 30 minutes beforehand. As his fingers formed the seals - _Tiger, Horse, Tiger_ – Sasuke's mind worked, finally putting everything in the right order, finding the key that had made it so difficult to understand. – _Cat, Bird, Tiger –_ The Jutsu wasn't a single Jutsu. – _Horse, Cat, Bird_ – It was two.

" _Ninpou!_ " Sasuke glared at the man in front of him who had paused, staring at Sasuke as his hands finished the final seal to the first half of the Jutsu, " _Tamahazusu no Jutsu_!"

There was a split second as Sasuke wondered if he _should_ use the second half of the Jutsu, then he stepped forward, his hands performing a second shorter set of seals then he grabbed hold of the mans arms firmly and smiled grimly.

" _Spirit Seal no Jutsu_!"

For a moment everything seemed to stop, then Sasuke released his hold on the man's body and it slowly crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

Naruto slid to a stop, his eyes going wide, and he stared.

Sasuke's breath came in short gasps as he lowered his hands to his sides and looked down at the ninja's body…then he looked back up to where Naruto was staring; at where the man was also standing at his own feet, staring down at his own body in shock.

"S…Sasuke. You…figured it out."

The ninja's head snapped up at Naruto's voice and he turned to stare at the boy whose expression was turning from stunned to exuberant.

"You figured it _out_! Take _that_!" Naruto crowed and levelled his hand to point at the confused man, "Never underestimate the power of Uchiha Sasuke! He may not be as good as _me_ but he's almost as good!"

Sasuke glared, "I'm ten-times better then you, _dobe_ ; and you know it." He moved his gaze from Naruto who had ignored Sasuke's reply and was dancing around madly, and looked at the Ninja, then down at the body. Finding out the original Jutsu was half the task done, thankfully the hardest part. Crouching down, Sasuke began to form the same seals as before, this time in reverse, then reached out and grabbed the man's arms, whispering under his breath, " _Reversal!_ "

Instantly the body began to stir and Sasuke stood up and glared at Naruto "We have to go."

" _Right_! Where's Kakashi-sensei? Let's _go_!"

"Oi, are you done?"

Sasuke turned his head slightly, then turned around to fully face Kakashi who was leaning against a tree, the man who had so abruptly disappeared lying at his feet.

"Let's go." Sasuke said shortly and glared at Naruto again; who was still half dancing around like a loon. " _Baka_." He muttered and went to retrieve his pack.

Naruto's exuberance had died off rapidly as Kakashi and Sasuke ran quickly, attempting to make up the time they'd lost in the ambush. Sasuke could only guess that their haste had pointed out to the boy that figuring out the Jutsu was only half the problem solved and that they still had to get back to Konoha if they were going to do anything.

And Sasuke was anxious about it. Naruto hadn't actually _hit_ the man who'd attacked Sasuke, but he'd still pulled in energy to do so and the fact that he'd done it was obvious. He wasn't simply fuzzy around the edges now; he was completely see-through and at times distorted. And he looked tired; his breathing was heavy and grew more laboured throughout the day as they moved.

"Naruto." They had managed to keep running for the rest of the day without stop and the sun was beginning to go down. They were close to the village and would probably reach it in the next few minutes. " _Naruto!_ " Sasuke said the name slightly more insistently the second time when the boy didn't immediately reply, no longer caring if Kakashi heard him or not.

"Ah. What?" Naruto was half staggering, his breathing quick and his shoulders sagging as if he were trying to hold up a great weight and failing.

"We're almost there." Sasuke stated and tried to ignore the itch he had in his hands to reach out to try and support the boy's weight.

"Ah."

"Don't stop."

"Ah." Naruto staggered slightly but managed a faint smile, "Same to you, bastard. You look like I feel."

"Hn." Sasuke changed direction slightly, following Kakashi's lead as the man led them out onto the road and towards the giant gates of Konoha village.

They were almost there but Sasuke refused to let himself relax; he needed the anxiousness and the resulting adrenaline that was coursing through his veins if he planned to get any further.

They passed through the gates, thankfully unchallenged, and sped through the village in a blur, taking to the still slightly damp rooftops to move more swiftly.

As soon as he saw the hospital, Sasuke put in a burst of speed and passed Kakashi to get into the building, only stopping his headlong sprint when he reached the front desk. It had occurred to him, as they entered the village that given what Naruto's condition was, he'd probably been moved from where he had been.

Pushing passed the few people that were lined up before the desk, Sasuke leaned on it, his breathing slightly laboured, and demanded: "Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto, where is he?"

"You can't…" The nurse behind the counter began and Sasuke snapped his head up, meeting her eyes with his Sharingan.

" _Where is Uzumaki Naruto?_ " He growled again and the woman's eyes went wide and she recoiled from the mud covered boy whose eyes scared her not so much because of the colour as for the slight hint of desperate menace she saw in them.

Her hand shaking slightly, the girl picked up the patient sheet on the desk and flicked through it.

"Uhmm…err… Uzumaki Naruto is in the intensive care unit; second floor, room 408. But you can't…" She stared at where Sasuke had _been_ then yelled desperately after the retreating figure, " _You can't go in there he's in isolation!_ "

Sasuke ignored her and ran his way through corridors he'd gotten relatively familiar with since he'd become a Genin when he was twelve. There had always been _someone_ , normally he or Naruto, who needed to be here from over training, or getting damaged in battles, so he knew his way around most areas.

Out of the corner of his eye Sasuke could still see Naruto and he wasn't quite sure, but the blonde almost looked like he was…better? Sliding around a corner and rebounding off the wall, Sasuke dodged a nurse wheeling a patient down the corridor and, with a quick glare at the sign which hastened to reassure him that _yes_ , it was definitely the Intensive care unit, he took to the stairs, racing up them two and three at a time. Naruto was right behind him.

It wasn't till he reached the top of the stairs that he encountered a problem. As soon as he shot up the last steps he found his path blocked by two Jounin, one of which who put an arm out to stop Sasuke's headlong flight down the hallway.

"You can't be here." The one who'd stopped him said firmly, "Leave, please."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he looked passed the men down the hallway, his eyes running over the numbers on the doors till he found the one with Naruto. "No. I have to see someone."

"I don't care if you're here to see Tsunande-sama herself," the first guard said and pushed Sasuke back a few steps, "this is a restricted area and nobody is allowed here. I warn you again; leave."

"Sasuke, I can just…" Naruto was glaring at the two men blocking Sasuke's path, clutching at his side and breathing hard.

" _No_!" Sasuke snapped, "Idiot." He turned his gaze back to the two Jounin whose expressions had hardened at Sasuke's emphatic denial.

Both men were standing ready now, prepared to fight Sasuke to prevent him from getting passed them. Sasuke growled under his breath and prepared himself as well; he didn't care _who_ he had to fight, he _would_ get to Naruto's room.

"That isn't necessary." A voice said lazily and Sasuke glared back over his shoulder at where Kakashi had finally decided to catch up and was leisurely walking up the stairs.

"You two stand down. This one is allowed passed." Kakashi ordered and the two men, with a disbelieving look at the filthy Sasuke, stood to the side.

Sasuke raced passed them immediately. He slid slightly when he finally got to the door to Naruto's room and grabbed hold of the door handle to steady himself, then thrust it open and half staggered inside.

There were two people in the room, Sasuke noticed out of the corner of his eye. Iruka-sensei, who had jumped out of his seat the instant the door had flown open; and the Hokage, who was staring at Sasuke in startlement.

Sasuke ignored them both, his eyes moving straight to where Naruto's body was laying on the bed. He was pale, his skin next to translucent and Sasuke guessed the only thing keeping him breathing were the machines he was hooked up too; but he was still alive. He was still alive and Sasuke had got here on time and now he could put everything back the way it should be.

Relief flooded through him suddenly and the tension he'd been in the grip of for days seemed to drain out of him, leaving him feeling weak. Tightening his grip on the door handle for balance, Sasuke took a step forward towards the bed-

-And collapsed into unconsciousness.

End Chapter Three 


	5. Final Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to me.

A/N: N/A

Chapter Four

Sasuke came back to consciousness slowly, his mind feeling almost fluffy – as if it had been packed full of wool and left to sit for a few days.

Gradually thought began to seep into his mind and he noticed small things – he was warm – his pillow was soft – his mattress was comfortable – he had a small, dull pain in his left arm. There was something niggling at him though, something he was sure he was supposed to remember that was terribly important. He worked at it, trying hard to make his thoughts become something coherent so he could make sense of them.

There was something odd about being so warm and comfortable, he was sure he wasn't supposed to be, so he worked on that first. Why _shouldn't_ he be? _Because he wasn't at home_. Right, that was good logic. He _shouldn't_ be warm and comfortable if he wasn't at home because…because… He pushed his mind a bit and vaguely recalled that it had been raining. But why had he been out in the rain? He pushed his mind a bit more. He'd been out in the rain…fighting, yeah, that's right. He'd been fighting in the rain; it had been exhausting and had eaten away at his last reserves of energy, which he'd already been pushing to the limit to get home. To get home because… And suddenly Sasuke remembered. Like a dam breaking his memories flooded back and he sat bolt upright, his eyes snapping open.

" _Naruto?_ "

"What?"

Sasuke snapped his head to the right and looked down directly into Naruto's blurry expression. The boy had obviously been sleeping, his head resting in his crossed arms on the side of Sasuke's hospital bed.

Sasuke stared.

After a moment of sleepy blinking, Naruto yawned, sat up straight in his chair and stretched. Then he glared at Sasuke.

"So you're awake now, asshole. Thanks, you were _a lot_ of help." Sarcasm.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the blonde's tone and he found his voice, "What happened?" he demanded.

"Oh nothing _much_ ," Naruto glared, "you just walked into my room and _passed out cold_. You've been sound asleep for the last two days straight."

"Two _days_." Sasuke repeated blankly then very deliberately reached out and poked Naruto in the shoulder. His eyes narrowed, "You're _solid_." He accused.

Naruto glared, slapping Sasuke's hand away from him and stood up, "No thanks to _you_!" he snapped, "You fell flat on your face and then Kakashi-sensei stepped right over you and reversed the Jutsu!"

" _Kakashi-sensei!_ How did _he_ -?" Sasuke stopped talking as the image of Kakashi nonchalantly leaning against a tree watching as Sasuke figured out the Jutsu came into his mind. He had…he'd been watching Sasuke with his Sharingan while it was still half covered to make it look like he _hadn't_ , it was the only explanation. But why? And for how long had he been doing it?

Sasuke shook himself out of his thoughts and tuned back in to Naruto who was in full ranting mode complete with finger pointed at Sasuke accusingly.

"…Bastard! What if I had died while you took your little nap? Some heroic saviour _you_ are! If Kakashi-sensei hadn't have been there I'd probably be _long gone_ , you selfish asshole! I bet you did it on purpose! Ahhh! You did, didn't you! Basta- ** _mfph_**!"

Sasuke let the noise wash over him and allowed himself a small smile. It was irritating and loud and normally made him want to strangle the blonde to within an inch of his life, but right now it was proving to Sasuke that the boy was _alive_. No longer an image, or a spirit, he was really _alive_ and back to normal and _safe_. Sasuke wasn't going to lose someone else close to him, but still…

Not really thinking about it, Sasuke reached out and grabbed Naruto's raised arm and yanked the blonde towards him, crushing him against his chest in a fierce hug.

"I'm glad you're alright." Sasuke murmured and ignored Naruto's startled exclamation, hugging him tighter, "I really, _really_ am."

"Y-you _are_?" Naruto asked slowly, his voice muffled slightly from being half crushed against Sasuke's shoulder. "R-really?"

" _Yes_." Sasuke said firmly, "I-I'm _sorry_ I passed out." He added, the words only sticking in his throat a little before he could get them out. "I…"

A subtle tension seemed to drain out of Naruto suddenly and he curled his fingers tightly around the fabric of Sasuke's hospital shirt and moved his position so he wasn't so sprawled across the bed or crushed against him, "It's okay." He said over Sasuke's apology, "I was mad but…" he tightened his grip and glared fixedly at the floor, "I was more worried if you were alright. You've been pushing yourself since we left the village, your energy had to run out sometime."

"It picked a hell of a time." Sasuke said his voice touched with irritation.

They fell silent for a moment, each falling into their own thoughts, searching for something to say. Naruto broke the silence first.

"That _reminds_ me!" Naruto exclaimed and twisted slightly to look up at Sasuke, "I talked to Kakashi-sensei when I woke up yesterday and _he_ said that that Tsuitsui guy knew what was going on!"

Sasuke frowned for a moment, "Tsukai… He what?"

"He knew I was there!" Naruto shook Sasuke slightly, "And that's what he was blabbering at Kakashi-sensei before we left them!"

"Hn, I thought he might have." Sasuke stared at the wall in thought. So that was how come Kakashi had been half watching with his Sharingan. "I wonder if he told Sakura." He added.

Naruto began to laugh and Sasuke moved his gaze from the wall to the top of Naruto's head.

"Shut up, _dobe_."

"I hope…" more laughing, "he _did_ tell her. It'd serve you right!"

"Chi'" Sasuke dismissed it as irrelevant and waited for Naruto to stop laughing. It was odd, but he didn't mind, not really. Normally he would have snapped at the blonde, tried to force him to shut up; but now…things were different now. Of course he was still going to _act_ like Naruto was the most annoying person that ever lived but… He suddenly tightened his grip around Naruto again and fell backwards against his pillow to lay down. He didn't want to lose Naruto, whether it was from an enemy attack, or because he'd been cold enough to the boy that he thought he wasn't wanted. If he'd learnt anything from this experience, it was that no matter how irritating he could be, Naruto was the one person on this planet that Sasuke couldn't afford to lose.

"I'm going back to sleep." Sasuke declared.

"Err…" Naruto hesitated, "Are you going to let go of me first?"

Sasuke smirked and moved slightly, pulling the blankets out from under Naruto then throwing them over him and tightening his grip.

"No."

"Oh…"

"Go to sleep." Sasuke ordered.

"O-okay." Naruto answered.

Sasuke let his smirk widen a little, made himself comfortable resting his cheek against the top of Naruto's head and then closed his eyes to follow the orders himself.

End Chapter Four End Skinless 


End file.
